GDANSK (Reuters) -Poland’s PKO BP posted a 259% year-on-year rise in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, due to improving income from core activities.
The largest Polish bank by assets reported a profit of 2.45 billion zlotys ($635.95 million), beating market expectations of 2.24 billion zlotys in a bank-compiled consensus.
PKO said it meets the requirements of the recommendation to pay dividends of up to 75% of profit.
The company’s quarterly net interest income rose 21.7% to 6.18 billion zlotys.
Net fee and commission income came in at 1.26 billion zlotys, up 2.2% on the year.
Net interest margin was at 5.18% in the fourth quarter compared to 4.55% year ago and 4.89% in the third quarter of 2024.
Reported return on equity ratio, a measure of profitability, reached 19.2% at the end of the year.
In the fourth quarter, PKO BP booked a provision of 1.59 billion zlotys on mortgages in Swiss francs.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles took out mortgages in foreign currencies, mainly in Swiss francs, in the early to mid-2000s, attracted by lower interest rates.
They are now repaying them in far larger instalments than expected after the Swiss franc soared against the zloty and interest rates in Switzerland were hiked.
PKO BP concluded 2,453 in-court settlements with clients regarding the Swiss franc mortgages in the fourth quarter compared to 1,853 settlements concluded in the third quarter.
($1 = 3.8525 zlotys)
(Reporting by Adrianna Ebert; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
