K&H Bank reports HUF 108 billion net profit, while the net profit of K&H Insurance reaches HUF 1 billion in FY 2023

Guy Libot, CEO of K&H Group, said: ‘In 2023 we delivered a solid performance, our profit after tax reached HUF 108 billion. Results were fuelled by the growing client base and loans. Retail loan demand has recovered significantly, and we were also particularly successful in corporate lending. This good result was achieved in spite of HUF 56 billion negative impact of government measures. In 2023, our total client base reached 962 thousand, representing a 5 percent increase year-on-year. The number of regular-income-transfer customers is 589 thousand representing a 7 percent increase year-on-year. 1 in 3 of K&H account openers are young people, meaning 22 percent more young clients opened accounts in 2023 at K&H than a year ago. Our new mobile bank was the first in the Hungarian financial sector to introduce digital HUF transfer on voice command. Besides having been awarded the title of Best Digital Bank in Hungary in 2023 we are also honoured to have our efforts recognised as Best ESG Bank in Hungary in 2023 by Euromoney. I am also very proud of being ranked as market leader in Digital Solutions and Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) as well and highly regarded in Corporate Banking by Euromoney in 2023.”

Financial results in 2023

K&H Bank reported a profit after tax of HUF 108 billion. Income grew by 12.6 percent, while costs by 14.5 percent due to windfall tax, interest rate cap and other bank taxes and inflationary pressures. Excluding the aforementioned taxes the Bank’s operating expenses grew by 11 percent year-on-year. The total loan portfolio grew by 10 percent year-on-year to HUF 2829 billion, while the volume of new corporate and retail loans reached HUF 630 billion in 2023.

“Corporate lending expanded dynamically year-on-year, by 13 percent, outpacing overall market growth. We continue to actively participate in state subsidized financing schemes to support the daily operation as well as the development projects of businesses: at the end of 2023, the total contracted volume of K&H’s Széchenyi Card Program reached HUF 230 billion and in Eximbank’s Baross Gábor Loan scheme it was more than HUF 125 billion contracted volume. Agricultural Széchenyi Card was launched in December 2023 – during the first month of active participation of the program resulted HUF 3.8 billion requested volume. In Q32023 we launched InvestEU Guarantee Scheme for SMEs and Start Guarantee Scheme, “- explained Attila Gombás, CFO of K&H Group.

“K&H’s retail loan portfolio grew by 4 percent year-on-year, while new production was 33 percent lower in full year 2023 than in full year 2022. However, there was a 71 percent rebound in 2H2023 compared to 1H2023, which was especially hit by the weak demand. New housing loans reached HUF 123 billion in 2023 at K&H. Since the launch of the K&H Green Home Loans for the purchase of energy-efficient new properties or used homes with a subsequent energy efficiency upgrade more than HUF 4.5 billion has been disbursed, “- added Attila Gombás. “We saw strong client interest in investments, so investment funds had an excellent year, with assets under management growing to an unprecedented HUF 1,349 billion with record net sales of 247 billion and excellent returns in 2023. During the year, clients focused on short bond and money market funds in both HUF and FX. We continue to lead the way in the sale of responsible investments: 18 percent of new sales in Q4 and 16 percent for the year as a whole were in these products. During December, we launched the first Hungarian bond fund as a responsible investment, bringing our assets under management in responsible investments to over HUF 500 billion.”

Nik Vincke, CEO of K&H Insurance, said: ‘In FY 2023 net profit reached only HUF 1.1 billion as a result of the of the windfall tax and significant claim cost growth.  In Non-Life, premium income grew 16 percent year-on-year to reach HUF 68.0 billion and all business lines reached a double-digit growth compared to previous year ensuring an above market growth. Life also brought strong business performance with a 17percent year-on-year growth driven by regular unit-linked pension business and unit-linked single product line. Efficiency of insurance’ back-office processes further increased: more than 70 percent of home insurance new businesses were proceeded by robots in Q42023.”

Digital transformation and innovation

K&H launched Kate, its artificial intelligence-based digital financial assistant last year and more than 65 percent of its customers have already used it and it has more than 200 functions. Clients can initiate HUF transfers on the basis of verbal instruction in the K&H mobile bank which makes it significantly easier for them to manage their finances.

 “Voice-commanded HUF transfer is a milestone in the domestic application of artificial intelligence-based digital financial assistants. Since September last year, 500 000 users have interacted with Kate through our mobile bank, and 223 000 conversations are started monthly, “said Balázs Németh, Head of Innovation at K&H. “The K&H cashback service was launched at the beginning of November. We already have more than 70,000 registrations and 7,000 customers have already received a credit at the end of December 2023.”

K&H has more than 700,000 digitally active retail customers. About 55 percent of new retail accounts are opened online (+55 percent year-on-year). The number digital payments reached 5 million per month in 2023. 68 percent of cash loans is digital (+26 percent year-on-year) and 73 percent of MTPL is digitally contracted (+32 percent year-on-year).

“In terms of digitalization our service is permanently improving, in insurance and corporate services as well. More than 250 000 users have checked the status of their insurances in our mobile bank, last year customers paid their insurance premiums in our mobile bank more than 30 000 times and in the amount of more than 700 million HUF. Thanks to a new innovation, clients can also find bank product linked insurances (payment protection, bank account linked risk life and bankcard linked travel) in our mobile bank.  Digital stand-alone risk life insurance and non-life claim reporting and status follow-up is also available in our mobile bank. In Corporate we introduced new digital services to improve customer experience as confirmation of treasury deals can be done digitally eliminating more than 100 000 paper-based documents per annum and existing corporate customers with certified electronic signatures can use a user-friendly paperless solution when contracting daily banking services,” – Balázs Németh added.

Sustainability

‘Our innovative financial products, such as green residential mortgages, green car leasing, discounted compulsory car insurance for electric and hybrid cars and responsible investments, can help our customers contribute to climate goals. Last year we launched our home energy consumption calculator for retail customers on our website, which after a few simple steps estimates the current energy efficiency rating of the property and provides guidance for optimal planning of future energy renovations.  So far, we’ve had more than 3000 calculations on our website. We contribute to a more sustainable economy through our lending policy, with a strong focus on supporting renewable energy production. Last year we contracted more than HUF 70 billion new corporate green loans. We self-developed an agricultural CO2 calculator module for crop producers and animal breeders on our website for our agricultural clients,” said Guy Libot, CEO of the K&H Group. ” In casco insurance  there was 22 percent share of electric cars in  new casco policies and also we reached 22 percent share of electric cars in new K&H green car leasing contracts.”

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