Active role in financing the economy: K&H's total assets exceed HUF 5,000 billion

As Guy Libot, CEO of K&H Group highlighted: "K&H's good financial results are primarily due to the rapid increase in loan volumes, which, in turn, resulted in a higher market share in new retail loans. In the last quarter of 2021, innovative smartwatch payment solutions such as Google Pay and Garmin became available at K&H, so we can now offer the highest number of smartwatch payment options. Our retail customer base reached 752,000 in 2021, of which nearly 500,000 are regular payroll transfer clients. Last year, more than 60 thousand new customers chose us as their bank. I am proud that last year K&H was selected as the winner of the Financial Enterprise of the Year Award by Figyelő TOP200, thanks to our financial results and business activities."

Financial results in 2021

K&H Bank's profit after tax increased from HUF 42 billion at the end of 2020 to HUF 75 billion at the end of 2021. The profit of 2020 had been reduced by impairments of HUF 30 billion primarily for losses expected due to the pandemic and modification loss on moratorium, while in 2021 HUF 3 billion impairment was released. Thanks to the growing loan,deposit and investment portfolios, the Bank's underlying profit rose by 28% to HUF 74 billion. The total loan portfolio went up by 13% to HUF 2,156 billion and new loan production reached HUF 608 billion.

"K&H Bank continues to play an active role in financing Hungary’s economy, households, small businesses, large corporations and the public sector (the state and municipalities). By the end of last year, K&H's total assets exceeded HUF 5,000 billion. Our corporate loan volume increased by 10% yoy. Our product range was expanded with short and long-term Széchenyi GO! loans offering favourable financing for small and medium-sized enterprises. On the corporate side, we signed loan agreements worth HUF 56 billion last year under Exim's Compensation Loan Programme, while HUF 47 billion were transacted in the MNB's Bonds for Growth Programme (NKP) and HUF 225 billion of contracted loans were concluded in the NHP Go for it! programme. Total assets under management in investment funds increased by nearly 15% to HUF 891 billion. On the lending side, the value of new disbursements was 27% higher than in the previous year. The value of baby boom loans disbursed by K&H increased by 11% year-on-year, while new lending in the banking sector decreased by 11%. By the end of the year, the Bank had disbursed nearly HUF 5 billion in subsidised home renovation loans. In October last year, K&H joined MNB's Green Home Programme, in which we reached a market share of 19% by the end of the year. We expect green credit to play a more prominent role in housing finance this year, and the higher interest rate environment may also encourage customers to take advantage of the various support schemes offered by the Government and the Central Bank, " explained Attila Gombás, CFO of K&H Group.  

Nik Vincke, CEO of K&H Insurance, said the following: ’In 2021 net profit reached HUF 6.7 billion. In Non-Life, premium income reached HUF 51.6 billion thanks to dynamically growing Casco, Home and SME business lines that are compensating slight declining MTPL volumes. Life brought strong business performance with a 25% yoy growth in regular unit-linked business and 11% yoy growth in regular risk life products. Our digital service is permanently improving: K&H introduced assisted insurance sales process in K&H mobile bank and on Direct Sales webportal. With this service branch advisors can provide assistance to customers during non-life insurance conclusion process.”

Digital transformation and innovation

Mobile bank usage was further booming in 2021. Mobile bank users’ number reached 602 000 and increased by 24% yoy. The value of transactions through mobile payment solutions in 2021 reached HUF 85.5 billion (+67% yoy).

"In addition to smartphone payments, smartwatch purchases are becoming increasingly popular. K&H has the most diverse range of smartwatch payment options: K&H made Garmin Pay and Google Pay smartwatch payments available alongside Apple Pay earlier. Every month, over 1.6 million payments are made with smartphones. Since last year, customers have been able to set up regular investments in the mobile banking app with ease; they can open a securities account or purchase certain investments on a regular, monthly basis. The number of clients investing in mobile banking is rapidly growing, with 11.5% of clients using digital devices. We launched fully online bank account opening, by the end of the year every second bank accounts were opened online. As a further step towards digitalisation, we made available to private banking clients a fund, which is determined with the help of AI-controlled models, although operated under portfolio managers’ control and volumes reached HUF 2 billion since its launch last October.  Next to our usual client facing developments we also pay attention to develop our back-end systems to make our processes faster and easier as part of fully end to end digital transformation, which will allow K&H to continue supporting our customers' day-to-day financial transactions with impressive innovations," explains Balázs Németh, Head of Innovation at K&H Group.

Sustainability at K&H

K&H was one of the first banks in the Hungarian banking sector to achieve carbon neutrality by the end of 2021, which means that K&H fully neutralises the emissions arising from its operations. To reach an effective reduction in emissions, by 2030 K&H will cut its carbon-dioxide emissions by 80% relative to 2015. The current reduction rate is 72%. This is supported by ongoing developments such as the energy modernisation of the nation-wide branch network, or a switch to hybrid cars in our fleet which already includes more than 200 such cars. " As a result of the improvements, we used 5.9 million fewer printed pages in 2021, thereby we prevented the cutting of 74 tons of wood, saved 1476 thousand litres of water (annual consumption of 17 households), saved 325 thousand kwh of electricity (annual consumption of 147 households) and prevented 27 tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. We also reviewed and restructured our lending and investment strategy last year in order to focus on sustainability in the sectors most affected. We are helping business banking customers prepare for climate change, and we have conducted 100 sustainability-themed client meetings on this topic. Last year, for example, we stopped funding projects aimed at the extraction of new oil and gas deposits or the modernisation of existing ones. Meanwhile, we are one of the market leaders in financing renewable energy production; we granted HUF 120 billion loans for such developments so far. We are also continuously expanding our range of sustainable investment funds, with the proportion of our clients investing in sustainable companies increasing, reaching 22.5% by the end of the year," explained Guy Libot, CEO of K&H Group.

K&H's unaudited, consolidated results under IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) were as follows:

* időarányos bankadóval