OREANDA-NEWS. AB DNB Bankas, a member of Norway's largest financial group, earned a net profit of LTL 36.4 million in the first nine months of 2013 according to the preliminary unaudited data calculated based on the International Financial Reporting Standards. The bank's net profit in the first nine months of 2012 amounted to LTL 75.98 million.

“Our financial result came on target despite the planned higher expenses related to the upgrades of core banking systems and we have further consolidated the bank's position in all major market segments. We are very pleased to see that the economy growth and further improvement of economic sentiment among individuals and businesses were stimulating the demand for financial services and that positively affected the dynamics of our credit portfolio. It is of no less importance that alongside with credit growth the quality of our loan portfolio has improved further as loan losses as well as non-performing loans continued to decline,” says Bjornar Lund, CEO of AB DNB Bankas.

As at the end of September credits granted to individual and corporate customers by AB DNB Bankas made LTL 9.38 billion, i.e. the net loan portfolio of the bank rose 4.7 percent year-on-year. This mainly resulted from the growing financing to business entities which rose 5.8 percent year-on-year and higher demand for mortgage credits. The volume of the bank's newly granted mortgage loans rose 47.5 percent year-on year and the bank's market share in this segment averaged 29.6 percent every month of the year

The deposit portfolio of AB DNB Bankas rose 16.0 percent compared to the same period a year ago to LTL 6.31 billion as of the end of September. This resulted from the continued growth in the number of individual and corporate customers that rose by 58 thousand compared to the same period a year ago. As of the end of September AB DNB Bankas provided comprehensive range of financial services to 822 thousand customers. Growing number of customers also contributed positively to the income growth from the bank's core business.

In the first nine months of the year the net income of AB DNB Bankas amounted to LTL 263.8 million. The largest relative weight - 59 percent - of the operating income fell on the net interest income which eased 12.5 percent year-on-year due the low interest rates. The bank's net commission income for the services rendered to customers rose by 13.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2013.

The bank's operating and other expenses made LTL 217.6 million in the first nine months 2013. They rose by LTL 46.3 million compared to the same period a year ago, LTL 45.8 million of the rise were related to investments into modern banking information systems. Despite a significant rise in business volume other operating expenses remained largely unchanged compared to the corresponding period a year ago.

With country's economy strengthening and customer risk decreasing the bank's loan losses made LTL 9.9 million in the first nine months of 2013 compared to LTL 35.2 million in the same period a year ago.

The bank's assets rose 6.3 percent year-on-year and as of the end of September amounted at LTL 11.97 billion.

Due to proper risk management the bank met all prudential requirements of the Bank of Lithuania.