2019 Interim Results

Resultaten eerste halfjaar 2019

• Various initiatives taken in response to the growing need for a bank with a strong social identity
• Developments in shared value scores:
  • Customers: customer-weighted Net Promoter Score positive for the first time: +1 (year-end 2018: -1)
  • Society: 41% climate-neutral balance sheet (year-end 2018: 37%); Financial Confidence Barometer stable at 49
  • Employees: introduction of a KPI for 'genuine attention' that is more in line with our mission; initial score for June 2019: 7.6 on a scale of 1 to 10
  • Shareholder: a Return on Equity of 8.6% (first half of 2018: 8.5%), based on a strong capital position

Growth in current account customers, mortgage portfolio and savings deposits

• Net growth in the number of current account customers by 43,000 to 1.53 million; market share of new current accounts of 21%
• Increase in mortgage portfolio by € 1.2 billion to € 48.5 billion
• Market share of new mortgages lower at 6.6% (full year 2018: 7.2%); limited decrease in new mortgage production to € 2.8 billion (first half of 2018: € 2.9 billion)
• Increase in retail savings by €1.1 billion to € 38.5 billion; market share of savings decreased slightly to 10.4% (2018: 10.6%)

Increase in net profit to € 154 million, mainly driven by lower operating expenses

• Net profit of € 154 million, an increase compared to both the first half of 2018 (€ 149 million) and the second half of 2018 (€ 119 million)
• Total income of € 471 million, lower compared to the first half of 2018 (€ 480 million) and the second half of 2018 (€ 478 million), as a result of a decline in net interest income; decline in net interest margin to 1.40% (2018: 1.47%)
• A decrease in operating expenses excluding regulatory levies to € 255 million (first half of 2018: € 272 million, second half of 2018: € 290 million), mainly driven by lower staff and marketing costs and a positive revaluation of € 7 million related a previous contribution made under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme
• Improvement in cost/income ratio (excluding regulatory levies) to 54.3% (first half of 2018: 56.7%, second half of 2018: 60.8%), driven by lower operating expenses
• A release of loan loss provisions of € 13 million (first half of 2018: a release of € 16 million, second half of 2018: a charge of € 4 million)

Unvaryingly strong capital position

• An increase in Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio to 37.1% (year-end 2018: 35.5%); leverage ratio 5.3% (year-end 2018: 5.5%)
• The total capital ratio rose to 42.7% (year-end 2018: 37.1%), notably as a result of the merger between de Volksbank N.V. and de Volksholding B.V.