Eleven banks and foreign bank branches operated profitably and three banking sector participants incurred losses. Banks' key activity – lending – generated the major part of their net income.
Net interest income remained the key source of banks' income, growing by 5.7% y-o-y to 117 mln euros.
Net service and commission income increased 4.4% to 55.6 mln euros, while administrative expenses went up by 3.9% to 80.6 mln euros.
The banking system's assets totaled 28.207 bn euros at the end of the first quarter, up 8.1%, or 2.1 bn euros, from a year earlier, and down 1.4% from the end of the previous quarter.
The combined loan portfolio (including leasing), which makes up the bulk of the assets, almost unchanged over a quarter but rose 5.5% to 19.891 bn euros.
The share of bad loans inched down 0.25 percentage points to 2.19% of the total loan portfolio.
Private individuals' deposits rose 0.9% over a quarter to 22.473 bn euros.
All banks complied with the regulatory capital and liquidity requirements at the end of the first quarter.
