Solid performance across all areas and increased profitability in key business segments led to another very successful quarter for Bank Pekao. The first quarter of 2024 was marked by high dynamics in retail banking, including a substantial increase in mortgage sales and significantly higher sales of personal loans. This quarter also saw a record quarterly sales of new personal accounts and an earlier-than-planned achievement of 3.2 million active mobile banking customers. The first three months of the year also brought a very significant positive dynamic in SME financing and stabilization of the corporate loan portfolio while maintaining low risk costs.
“We had a very strong start to the year. We effectively utilized the period of higher interest rates, generating substantial profits. We were well prepared for the government’s Safe Credit program, which led to a sixfold increase in mortgage sales by the end of this project in the first quarter. Our profitability is also due to the effective execution of digital transformation. We already have over 3.2 million active mobile banking customers, thus we have already achieved the goal set for the end of 2024,” says Leszek Skiba, president of Bank Pekao.
Bank Pekao’s consolidated net profit in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to 1.514 billion PLN compared to 1.446 billion PLN in net profit the previous year.
The positive net profit dynamics year-over-year were primarily due to an increase in interest income, while regulatory charges and operational costs were slightly higher than in the first quarter of 2023.
The first quarter of 2024 was record-breaking in retail banking. The number of active mobile banking customers of Pekao at the end of March exceeded 3.2 million, up from 2.9 million the previous year, thus reaching the strategic goal set for the end of 2024 ahead of schedule. The largest number of new current accounts was opened by individual clients from January to March, totaling 167 thousand.
New sales of personal loans increased year-over-year by 22 percent, recording a record monthly sale in March—among these loans, 83 percent were granted through digital banking.
New mortgage sales in the first quarter of 2024 were six times higher than the previous year, reaching 4.3 billion PLN. This was largely the result of the Safe Credit 2% program. In total, by the end of March, Bank Pekao had concluded over 25,000 contracts in this program amounting to over 10.3 billion PLN.
There was a double-digit (11 percent) year-over-year increase in SME financing volume in the first quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, the financing volume in the combined SME and MID segments, for the second quarter in a row, showed a solid 4 percent increase, and the corporate loan portfolio stabilized quarter-over-quarter, despite the challenging economic environment.
As always, Bank Pekao consistently kept costs under control, achieving a cost/income ratio of 39.3 percent from January to March, better than the target set for the end of 2024 at 42 percent.
Risk costs remained low at 39 basis points due to a responsible approach to balance sheet management. The strategic goal for the end of the strategy period in 2024 is within the range of 50-60 basis points.
