OREANDA-NEWS. March 06, 2012. In 2011, the loan portfolio of BIGBANK, who has expanded its activities outside Estonia, grew by nearly a quarter, while the company earned a profit of 5.7 million euros.

According to the consolidated financial results, BIGBANK's loan portfolio reached 185.9 million euros by the end of the year, increasing by 23.6% during the year. In 2011, BIGBANK increased its operations in all markets. In the Baltic countries, the loan portfolio grew moderately, the rates ranging from 4.7% for Estonia and 8.1% for Latvia to 15.3% for Lithuania. In the Group’s new markets, growth rates were higher. The strongest growth driver was the Finnish branch that began offering loans in 2010. In 2011, the Finnish branch increased its loan portfolio more than two-fold, to 30.6 million euros. By the year-end, the Spanish branch, which began offering loans in March 2011, had already increased its loan portfolio to 7.0 million euros.

In 2011, BIGBANK earned a profit of 5.7 million euros, which is 7.7% more than in 2010. Interest income amounted to 36.3 million euros (up 16.5%) while interest expenses totalled 6.3 million euros (down 22.4%). The profitability of the company was affected by, on the one hand, better payment behaviour of customers due to an improved economic environment, growth of interest income and decrease of financing expenses, and on the other hand, investments related to international expansion.

According to the Chairman of the Management Board of BIGBANK AS, Targo Raus, last year BIGBANK focussed mainly on the successful launching of the Finnish and Spanish branches, but managed to succeed also on already familiar markets. "On the Estonian market, last year's focus was on developing credit products offered through retailers by making them more beneficial and easily accessible to customers. In 2012, we will continue to expand internationally and by today we have founded a branch also in Sweden, where we plan to begin active loan sales during the first six months,” Raus noted.

In 2011, the number of BIGBANK’s employees grew by 54. As of the end of the year, the group employed a total of 531 employees in 5 countries, including 220 people in Estonia. The number of branch offices reached 30, of which 10 were located in Estonia, 7 in Latvia, 10 in Lithuania, 1 in Finland and 2 in Spain.

BIGBANK AS is a credit institution based on Estonian capital that has branches in Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain and offers its products as a cross-border service in Germany, Austria and Netherlands.