Croatian Postal Bank (Hrvatska postanska banka, HPB) reported a net profit of €18 million in the first quarter of 2023, 14 million euros more than in the corresponding period of 2022, the bank reported on Wednesday.

The first quarter of 2023 was marked by the continuation of positive trends in our business, said the bank, which is owned by Croatian Post.

“The Bank’s record quarterly net profit is the result of realized operating profit with effective provision management,” the HPB says in its report.

“The growth of interest income in this quarter (+57.6%) is primarily the result of the increase in the reference interest rate by the European Central Bank, i.e. the trend of increasing interest rates on the market and the intensive acquisition activities of the Bank in the previous year. The aforementioned also exceeds the increase in interest expenses in the same period, caused by MREL instruments, which began to be contracted from mid 2022.”

“Net fees and commission income increased by 1.9%, mostly due to higher fees in the cash payment transactions in HP channel,” the bank says in its report.

After four consecutive negative quarters, a net profit from trading was realized in the amount of EUR 907,200, which consists of EUR 565,000 realized by adjusting the book value of securities in the bank’s portfolio with market prices, while in the segment of the purchase and sale of foreign currency, the Bank achieved a result of EUR +342,000 in the first quarter of 2023.