BRE’s stable results and over 4 million clients

– In yet another consecutive quarter, BRE Bank has proved that cost reductions must not necessarily imperil organic business growth. The cost/income ratio was 44.5 percent after nine months of 2012, as compared to 47.3 percent a year earlier and the Bank is on track to deliver sound business growth with a cost base at similar level to 2011. In Q3 alone, we acquired another 50 thousand clients – said BRE Bank CEO Cezary Stypułkowski. He added that despite the deteriorating situation in the corporate sector, the cost of risk remained very good at 79 basis points in Q3, which puts the bank much below the market benchmark. The capital adequacy ratios also remained very good and stable. CAR was 15.4 percent and Core Tier 1 ratio 10.9 percent after the three quarters of the year.– Investors’ confidence in the Bank is best demonstrated by the issue of euronotes completed in early October – said Cezary Stypułkowski. The first tranche at a par value of EUR 500 million matures in 2015. Its interest rate is 2.75 percent p.a. The issue attracted very strong interest of over 100 investors from several countries.The loans/deposits ratio is also improving gradually: loans grew by 2 percent and deposits by 9.7 percent in Q3.Corporate and Investment BankingIn Q3 2012, the Corporate Clients and Institutions segment reported a pre-tax profit of PLN 109.9 million. – It was yet another quarter where we increased the number of served companies significantly: by 229 clients. Nearly 15 thousand corporate clients now use BRE Bank services – stressed Management Board Member for Corporate Banking Przemysław Gdański. Business expansion is also demonstrated by growing deposits (up by 5.1 percent quarter on quarter) and loans (up by 2.8 percent). – We are particularly satisfied with diversification of the sources of income owed to growing sales of transactional banking products and financial market products. The number of processed direct debits increased by 9.8 percent quarter on quarter – said Przemysław Gdański.In Q3, BRE Bank started to offer the iBRE News information service integrated with the iBRE internet banking platform. The service is dedicated to corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and local governments. It provides access to an aggregate stream of market information published by leading information services around the world. The Global Finance magazine named the iBRE FX currency exchange platform the best solution of its kind in Poland.Retail BankingIn Q3 2012, the Retail Banking Line generated a pre-tax profit of PLN 228.5 million, similar to the profit of Q2. The growing income was a profit driver. The pre-tax profit on banking operations was record-high at PLN 517 million after Q3.From July to September 2012, mBank and MultiBank acquired 40 thousand clients in Poland and close to 10 thousand clients in the CzechRepublic and Slovakia. As a result, the bank now serves over 4 million retail clients. New products on offer include credit cards participating in Europe’s biggest loyalty programme Miles&More; non-BRE clients are offered non-secured loans granted online in a simplified credit procedure. Net retail non-secured loans increased by 17 percent year on year. With new attractive savings products, the retail deposit base also increased (by 20 percent year on year). The bank promotes term deposits and a regular saving programme (mSaver, MultiSaver) where clients can save on the go as they spend. – The product is already used by over 100 thousand clients and we are opening new accounts every day. This suggests that Poles know how to save if they are offered an attractive product – said BRE Bank Management Board Member for Retail Banking Cezary Kocik.In September, the BRE Group retail banks once again won the Newsweek Friendly Bank ranking. MultiBank was named the most friendly traditional bank and mBank the mobile banking leader and the second best internet bank