Retail banks operating in Croatia ended the first quarter of 2021 with a total of 1.1 billion kuna (€146 million) in profit, which was similar to their performance in Q1 2020, the Croatia's central bank HNB reported on Monday. 

The indicators of profitability increased compared to the end of 2020, state agency Hina reported. The Return on Assets (ROA) increased from 0.6% to 0.9%, and Return on Equity (ROE) rose from 4.4% to 6.8%, the central bank said in its comment on the commercial lenders’ results in Q1 2021.

In terms of profit, the best performer was Zagrebačka Banka (ZABA), with 416.8 million kuna. It was followed by Privredna Banka Zagreb (PBZ), with 195.4 million kuna. Erste&Steiermärkische Bank ranked third, with 179.6 million kuna, and OTP reported a profit of 84.6 million kuna.

The next three banks had a profit of slightly over 40 million kuna: Addiko (41.1 million),  Raiffeisenbank Austria (40.3 million), and the Croatian Postal Bank/Hrvatska Poštanska Banka (HPB) (40.3 million).

(€1 = 7.51 kuna)