RBI books €398 mln loss in Hungary as borrowers relief weighs
Austriaʼs Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) booked a €398 mln loss at its Hungarian business last year, taking a hit on borrowers relief legislation that required banks to compensate many retail clients, an earnings report published today reveals, according to Hungarian news agency MTI.
A year earlier, RBI booked a €116 mln loss at its business.
CEO Karl Sevelda said the "hostile banking legislation" in Hungary had lowered the group result by €251 mln.
"I would like to state that in the meantime the government has promised to put an end to the burdens on banks," he added.
The legislation required lenders to compensate retail borrowers for making unilateral changes to contracts and for using exchange rate margins when calculating repayments on FX loans, once the most popular lending product in Hungary.
Sevelda said RBIʼs bank in Hungary would be restructured but noted that the country is a "market that is too important to leave".
The earnings report shows net interest income in Hungary fell 22% to €154 mln. RBI attributed the decline to lower interest income from derivatives, reduced lending volumes and a lower market interest rate levels.
Net income from fees and commissions rose 4% to €123 mln.
Net provisioning for impairment losses narrowed 16% to €128 mln. RBI said stock of non-performing loans was down by €181 mln.
The business had total assets of €6.936 bln at the end of the 2014, up 11% from twelve months earlier. Stock of client loans fell 5.5% to €4.714 bln. Stock of client deposits rose almost 3% to €4.276 bln.
The businessʼ cost-to-income ratio widened by 12.2 percentage points to 81.3%.
The Hungarian business had 580,052 clients last year.
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