Erste Group posts a net profit of EUR 262.2 million after a strong first quarter of 2017

„We’ve had a good start to the year, as reflected by our first quarter net profit of 262 million euros. This performance was also supported by the healthy macroeconomic environment across CEE and the continuation of last year’s positive trends: lending volumes grew at a stable level especially in retail banking, risk costs remained historically low, asset quality remained very solid with a NPL ratio below five percent, and we were able to maintain a high level of capitalization, with a core tier one capital ratio (phased-in) of 13.0 percent.

Our cost base rose during the first quarter, partly reflecting spending needed to address regulatory requirements, but mainly driven by investments in further expanding the services we can offer digitally to customers -- a field in which we are already regularly recognized as being at the forefront of the banking industry in Europe.

We’re pleased that our performance was also recently acknowledged by rating agencies, with Standard and Poor’s and Fitch raising our long-term ratings to A- (Positive) and A- (Stable), respectively. The trends that we see at the Group level are also reflected locally: all our subsidiaries had a profitable first quarter in 2017,” said Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste Group Bank AG.