Banks of Austria

Ljubljana – Slovenia’s largest banking group, NLB, reported on Thursday EUR 287 million in profit after tax for the first half of 2022, a 105% increase year-on-year. The growth was mainly driven by positive effects related to the acquisition of N Banka, formerly Sberbank. The profit of the core bank NLB fell from EUR 77.1 million to EUR 66.9 million.

Ljubljana – Banka Sparkasse, the Slovenian subsidiary of the Austrian banking group Erste Group, increased its total assets by more than a fifth to EUR 1.6 billion last year, which compares to 8% growth in the country’s baking system.

Ljubljana – The Slovenian branch of Sparkasse bank has acquired Erste Card, which has exclusive rights for issuing Diners Club cards in Slovenia, from the Croatian Erste Card Club. The contract was signed on Friday and still needs regulatory approval.

Sparkasse and Erste Card have been cooperating for years in offering personal and business Diners Club cards to Sparkasse clients.

Ljubljana – The Hungarian OTP Bank Group announced on Monday it had signed a contract to acquire the outright stake in NKBM, Slovenia’s second largest bank. The deal is expected to be finalised in the second quarter of next year as the acquirer is waiting approval from relevant regulatory authorities.

Six Bulgarian banks rank in the Top 100 of the largest financial institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. DSK, First Investment Bank and UBB are making significant progress in the ranking compared to last year. It is composed by RIA Rating Agency on the order of Russia's leading financial site Prime.

The National Bank of Serbia's (NBS) foreign exchange reserves amounted to EUR 10.29 billion at the end of June.

This figure was EUR 10.55 billion in May, the central bank said on Monday.

Banca Transilvania, the third-largest bank in Romania, is under discussions to take over the Romanian subsidiary of the Austrian banking group Volksbanken, Volksbank Romania SA, two sources close to the discussions have told Bloomberg.