K&H Banking Group reports a net profit of HUF 12.2 billion in 2019Q1

K&H Banking Group had a strong financial performance and recorded HUF 12.2 billion net profit in 2019Q1, a 4.6% increase yoy excluding exceptional items in 2018Q1. “In 2019Q1 our income increased by 7.7% yoy on comparable basis, driven by 2.7% net interest income and 9.3% fee income growth. We have further improving LTD ratio in 2019Q1 (62.8% 2019Q1 vs. 62.6% 2018Q4). K&H granted a total of HUF 110 bln new loans in 2019Q1 (Retail, SME and Corporate). By 31 March 2019 the share of new production housing loans with fixed interest rate increased to 96% up from 60% one year ago. Mortgage new production reached HUF 24 billion (+24% growth yoy). We are joining the sector and MNB initiative for refinancing variable interest rate mortgage loans.  10 000 of our  customers will be addressed to refinance their variable interest rate mortgage with fixed 5y or 10y formulas by the end of the year,” said Attila Gombás, CFO of K&H Group.

Nik Vincke, CEO of K&H Insurance added: “In Q1 2019 net profit increased by 20% yoy and reached HUF 1.3 billion. In non-life, premium income reached HUF 15.8 billion, growing by 27% yoy. Life brought strong business performance with a 36% yoy growth in regular unit-linked (including pension) and 21% yoy growth in individual risk products. We launched a full digital sales process for risk life insurance that reduces the contracting time for our clients with 50%, is entirely paperless and requires only 1 digital signature.”

In 2019Q1 K&H kept moving at full speed to implement digital innovations and new initiatives in order to provide easier and more convenient services to its clients: 

• K&H launched the first fully digitalized, robot operated cash loan service last year and it has recorded a  40% growth in production since last November. Every second visitor to the cash loan website is a new client.
• At the end of February as one of the first players in Hungary K&H opened a test environment and development portal (“sandbox”) for open banking, offering access to new-style operators, in line with the second payment directive (PSD2). A  K&H Innovathon event took place on May 18, where fintechs came to develop solutions on the open platform. 45 fintechs were registered and 14 finalists were invited to the event. K&H may expand its service palette with the applications presented at the event in the future.
• K&H is getting ready for incorporating the new retail government bond issues into its portfolio offer from June 1, as well as for disbursing the new baby boom loan as of July 1.  
• Preparation for the introduction of instant payment service is well under way and on schedule to go live on the July 1 2019 deadline.

K&H Bank’s unaudited, consolidated results according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were as follows: