Piraeus Banks has earlier today announced its financial results for the period ended in September, 30.
Net interest income amounted to €1,091million in 9M.2021, down 1% yoy, with resilience
on the back of increased fixed income holdings, improved deposit costs and the utilization
of the TLTRO III facility. NII in Q3.2021 was €319million, -16% yoy, impacted by the accelerated
NPE de-risking. NII, excluding forgone income from NPEs and TLTRO III one-off benefit,
amounted to €685mn in 9M.21, up 8.6% yoy. Low funding costs rendered the income line
resilient and traded-off some mild pressure on yields. Deposit costs remained supportive,
while the increase in performing loan balances, expected also under the utilization of RRF
funds kicking-in as of 2022, will generate additional loan interest income.
According to the bank's finacial reports, NPEs stood at €5.9billion at the end of September 2021, down from €22.5billion at the end of 2020. Τhe NPE ratio decreased substantially to 16% vs 23% as at 30 June 2021, mainly due to the classification as held for sale of the Sunrise 2 and Leasing NPE perimeters, both in the Q3.21, amounting to c.€3billion. The 2021 total €19billion HAPS and NPE sales derisking effort is well on track and the remaining projects are expected to be completed by early 2022.
Gross loans before impairments and adjustments amounted to €35.7billion compared to
€36.6billion at the end of June 2021. During Q3.21, the classification of the Sunrise 2 NPE
perimeter and leasing NPE portfolio as held-for-sale took place. Group net loans stood at
€33.4billion as at 30 September 2021. New loan disbursements in 9M.2021 amounted to
€4.6billion, addressing credit demand mainly from businesses (corporates, as well as SMEs and
small businesses). It is noted that the gross loan figure as at Sep.21 includes €5.0billion of
senior notes associated with the NPE securitizations concluded until now, namely Phoenix,
Vega and Sunrise 1.
Christos Megalou, Piraeus Bank's Chief Executive Officer commented on the results:
"“The Greek macro provides reasons for solid optimism, as the implementation of reforms, the speeding-up of foreign direct investments and the inauguration of projects under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, have reinforced the growth prospects of the Greek economy. On top, the acceleration of NPE reduction has further strengthened market confidence. During 9M.21, we continued to focus on supporting our customers, and have already granted €4.6billion of new financing, in line with our target of €5.7billion for the whole year. During the same period, customer deposits and mutual funds have increased by €3.4billion. Our NPE reduction plan is well on track with more than 90% of actions already executed. NPE reduction in the first nine months of the year amounted to €16bn, bringing our NPE ratio down to 16% from 46% six months ago. In September 2021, our capital ratio stood at c.16% on the back of more than €3billion of capital enhancement actions that were timely executed throughout the year. The remaining non-dilutive €0.4billion capital enhancement actions are under way, expected to be completed by early 2022. Capturing greater opportunities and efficiencies form a central part of our strategy. We are launching new initiatives, with the aim to capture business upside, by leveraging on increasing healthy credit demand and the RRF structural funds, enhancing our asset management, bancassurance and custody business, as well as exploiting digital ecosystem commercial opportunities. The Piraeus transformation is producing tangible results in record time, revealing the inherent value of our commercial franchise. Performance has been strong on all fronts with solid revenue generation, continued cost discipline and massive improvement in organic loan impairments. Against this backdrop, we bring closer the delivery of a return on tangible equity above 5%, along with single-digit NPE ratio in the forthcoming period"
