Unaudited: Bigbank's financial results for Q4 and 12 months 2023.

At the end of the fourth quarter, Bigbank's gross loan portfolio totaled a record €1.67 billion, up €58 million (+ 4%) for the quarter and €306 million (+ 23%) for the year.

The mortgage portfolio grew by 44 million euros (+ 14%) to 351 million euros and the consumer loan portfolio increased by 15 million euros (+ 2%) to 736 million euros.

The portfolio of corporate bank loans was almost unchanged in the fourth quarter compared to the end of the third quarter (-0.2%)

Deposit portfolio

The most important developments in the fourth quarter were the continued growth in savings deposits and the continuation of the deposit mix in the investment rate environment from last year.

The launch of the savings deposit product in Lithuania is also a significant development.

Overall, the group's total deposit portfolio increased by €154 million (+ 9%) over the quarter and by €570 million (+ 42%) over the year, expanding to €1.94 billion.

The time deposit portfolio decreased by €3 million (-0.4%) to €916 million, while the savings deposit portfolio increased by €158 million (+ 18%) to €1.02 billion during the quarter.

Net income

Bigbank made a net profit of 11.4 million euros in the fourth quarter and 40.8 million euros in the 12 months to 2023.

Compared to the 2022 results announced in the fourth quarter, net income remained stable and grew 25% for the full year.

Corporate banking

In the fourth quarter, corporate banking once again demonstrated strong performance, thanks to a stable loan portfolio and net revaluation gains on investment loans with special conditions.

The segment's profit before tax in the fourth quarter amounted to 6.9 million euros, including a profit of 3.9 million euros from financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss.

Net interest income

In the fourth quarter, net interest income increased by 3.9 million euros (+18%) compared to the previous year, totaling 25.2 million euros.

Over the past 12 months, net interest income increased by 15.6 million euros (+19%) to 98.0 million euros.

Quality of the credit portfolio

Despite the absence of signs of a decline in the quality of the credit portfolio in the first three quarters of 2023, the last quarter of the year showed a certain deterioration in the quality of the consumer credit portfolio.

The weak external environment has started to negatively impact borrowers, leading to an increase in the share of overdue loans, as well as expenses for creating reserves for credit losses.

Expenses for creating reserves for credit losses increased by 2.2 million euros (+47%) compared to the fourth quarter of 2022 and by 5.4 million euros (+35%) for the year 2023.

Compared to the end of 2022, category three loans increased by 21.1 million euros, accounting for 2.8% of the total loan portfolio (+1.0 percentage points).

The quality of commercial and mortgage loans remained stable without any deterioration.

Overall, the quality of the credit portfolio remains good, and the quality level of the consumer credit portfolio at the end of the fourth quarter was moderate.

Profit tax

At the end of 2023, Latvia introduced a profit tax for credit institutions, similar to the one in Estonia.

The tax must be paid for the first time in 2024 and will be calculated based on the profit before tax for the year 2023.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Group accounted for tax expenses of 2.0 million euros.

Investment active portfolio

The Group's investment active portfolio, which includes both agricultural land and commercial real estate, amounted to 49.1 million euros at the end of the quarter.

During the quarter, the Group did not conduct any transactions with investment assets, but there was an increase in value of 4.4 million euros.