Greece’s National Bank posts higher Q3 profit, loan-loss provisions drop

ATHENS (Reuters) -National Bank (NBG), one of Greece’s four largest lenders, on Friday reported higher net profit in July-to-September compared to the second quarter, amid lower provisions for impaired loans and higher net interest income.

NBG, 40 percent owned by the country’s bank rescue fund HFSF, said net profit reached 192 million euros from net earnings of 18 million euros in the second quarter.

Provisions for impaired loans dropped 10% to 63 million euros in the third quarter with its so-called non-performing exposures (NPE) down to 11.8% of its loan book from 12.7% at the end of June.

“NBG’s third quarter performance reflects both the impact of the strongly recovering economy as well as the multi-year transformation effort,” CEO Paul Mylonas said in a statement.

Banks in Greece have been working to reduce a pile of about 30 billion euros ($34 billion) in bad loans, the legacy of a decade-long financial crisis that shrank the country’s economy by a quarter.

The group’s net interest income was 3% higher on a quarterly basis to 306 million euros with net interest margin at 2.15%.

“The capital accretive NPE performance, both organic and inorganic, combined with the strong profitability has led the capital ratios higher, to 17.8% and c19% for the CET1,” Mylonas said.

($1 = 0.8835 euros)

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)