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De Volksbank posts 2017 net profit of € 329 million
The implementation of our mission 'Banking with a human touch' led to progress in achieving our shared value objectives and sustained commercial growth.
- Customers: the customer-weighted Net Promoter Score rose to -3 (2016: -8); at a market share in new current accounts of 20%, the number of current account customers rose to 1.4 million
- Society: the climate-neutral balance sheet rose to 27% (2016: 22%); de Volksbank is the first bank to introduce a quantitative objective for the financial resilience of its customers
- Employees: commitment (7.6) and engagement (7.4) remained at the same level but the employee NPS showed a decline to -2 (2016: 30), notably due to the planned staff reductions
- Shareholder: at 8.7% the adjusted return on equity, based on a very solid capital position, exceeded the 8% objective (2016: 10.8%)
Net profit remained at a high level, still supported by a net release of provisions for loans, although this release was considerably lower than in 2016
- Result: net profit fell slightly to € 329 million (2016: € 349 million)
- Net profit adjusted for incidental items decreased to € 316 million (2016: € 374 million); this decrease was mainly driven by a lower net release of provisions for loans
- Income: net interest income was marginally lower at € 924 million (2016: € 938 million); the interest margin improved to 1.50% (2016: 1.48%)
- Expenses: operating expenses decreased to € 603 million (2016: € 642 million); excluding regulatory levies and incidental items, operating expenses decreased only slightly to € 560 million (2016: 564 million): higher additions to non-credit risk related provisions largely offset the first positive effects of efficiency measures
- Retail mortgages: the mortgage portfolio grew by € 1.0 billion to € 45.9 billion thanks to a 41% increase in new mortgage production; the new retail mortgages market share rose to 6.8% (2016: 5.7%)
- Quality of the mortgage portfolio: retail mortgages in arrears fell further to € 559 million, 1.2% of total retail mortgages (year-end 2016: € 705 million, 1.5%)
- Capital position: the Common Equity Tier 1 ratio rose to 34.1% (2016: 29.2%); the leverage ratio also rose, to 5.5% (2016: 5.2%)
- Proposed dividend pay-out for 2017 of € 190 million to NLFI, corresponding to a pay-out ratio of 60% (2016: € 135 million; 41%)
