Growing revenues and high efficiency were the main drivers of BRE Bank Group’s profit in Q2 2012. The net profit was close to PLN 320 million while the cost/income ratio was 43.5 percent. The Bank published a new strategy which focuses on integration of all offered services under one brand: mBank.
“In Q2 2012, we managed once again to keep up the good condition achieved in previous periods. Business growth through customer acquisition in the two main business lines as well as solid cross-selling produce tangible results,” said Cezary Stypułkowski, CEO of BRE Bank. “The good results combined with the new strategy make for a good outlook although there are more difficult times ahead. We want to be ready for that.”The revenue from BRE Bank Group’s core business increased by nearly 3 percent in Q2 and stood at PLN 784 million. The net interest income increased by a strong 5 percent while the net commision income decreased by 2 percent.The capital adequacy ratios remained strong: CAR was 14.8 percent and the Core Tier I ratio, 10.1 percent. Continuation of a precautionary risk management policy helped to maintain the cost of risk at 65 basis points.Corporate and Investment BankingThe segment of Corporations and Financial Markets reported a profit before tax of over PLN 172 million in Q2 2012, an increase of 87 percent year on year. The business line Corporates and Institutions generated a profit before tax of over PLN 130 million in April-June 2012 and PLN 251.4 million in H1 2012, up by nearly 2.5 times year on year. The number of BRE Bank’s corporate customers increased by more than a thousand and reached 14.6 thousand in that period. “It is very important that our strategic assumptions translate into real results. Transactional banking and sales of financial instruments are an increasingly big part of our business,” said Przemysław Gdański, BRE Bank Management Board Member for Corporate Banking. “Structured finance projects also deliver tangible results. We plan to continue active customer acquisition,” said Mr Gdański. In June, BRE Bank was one of the first three banks in Poland to offer corporate customers instant money transfers in the Elixir Express system. Earlier, as of 29 April, the effective date of the property development law, the Bank added escrow accounts for developers to its offer. The Silesian Public Services Card project is now operational: in the coming years, BRE Bank will issue 700 thousand pre-paid cards which can be used among others to pay for public transport in the Upper Silesian Region. Retail BankingIn Q2 2012, the profitability of BRE Bank Group’s retail banking was maintained. The profit before tax of the line was close to PLN 230 million. BRE Bank’s retail brands mBank and MultiBank jointly acquired over 200 thousand new clients year to date and now serve 4 million retail customers including over 400 thousand microenterprises. “It is very important that mBank and MultiBank have remained very profitable brands,” said Cezary Kocik, BRE Bank Management Board Member for Retail Banking. “The broad range of products and services available over multiple distribution channels attract new customers and offer added value to existing customers. This gives us a very good base to implement our innovative plans,” said Mr Kocik.In May, BRE’s retail brands launched regular saving programmes (mSaver and MultiSaver, respectively). Since April, retail customers of mBank and MultiBank can use the prestigious card Premium World MasterCard. Microenterprises have also been offered new facilities including free-of-charge payment terminals for corporate accounts and the option of opening a corporate account using only an ID card.MultiBank service quality has once again been acknowledged in the “Jakość na Bank” ranking published by TNS Polska. MultiBank ranked #1 earning the top score for analysing customer needs and building and maintaining positive relations. The “New mBank” project has entered a new stage; customers will benefit from its results already in Q1 2013.New Strategy: One BrandBRE Bank has published a new strategy for 2013-2016. The main goal of the strategy is to turn the organisation into one perfectly working organism both from the perspective of customers and employees.“We want our organisation to be even more focused on serving our customers, which in my opinion is now the main source of competitive advantage in the banking industry. The means to that end is to organise our business in all segments around the mBank brand,” said Cezary Stypułkowski. “This will also result in creating a network of universal branches which can serve all customers, from individuals to large companies,” added Mr Stypułkowski. In his opinion, the unification of the brand will also generate many positive changes within the organisation.The key financial goals of BRE’s new strategy include improvement of the balance sheet structure by increasing the share of funding with customer deposits. The main business goals include improvement of the position of the Group in the segment of large corporates and, in retail banking, maintenance of the status of a leader in innovative technologies and customer service quality. Kontakt dla mediów