Bulletin: Erste Group's Solid 2022 Profit Underscores Balance Sheet Resiliency

FRANKFURT (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 28, 2023--S&P Global Ratings today said that Austria-based Erste Group Bank AG's (A+/Stable/A-1) solid earnings in 2022, a year with many challenging external factors, highlights the group's franchise strength. Erste reported solid after-tax profit, primarily from strong net interest income, cost containment, and moderate credit losses. Performance was close to our 2022 projections and support our view that the bank can uphold sound capitalization, as measured by a risk-adjusted capital ratio of 9.0%-9.5% for the next 12-24 months. Erste also brought down its nonperforming loan ratio toward 2.0%, underlying a strong managerial focus on asset quality. We believe these developments are preparing the bank well for a potentially challenging fiscal 2023, and supports our view

...FRANKFURT (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 28, 2023--S&P Global Ratings today said that Austria-based Erste Group Bank AG's (A+/Stable/A-1) solid earnings in 2022, a year with many challenging external factors, highlights the group's franchise strength. Erste reported solid after-tax profit, primarily from strong net interest income, cost containment, and moderate credit losses. Performance was close to our 2022 projections and support our view that the bank can uphold sound capitalization, as measured by a risk-adjusted capital ratio of 9.0%-9.5% for the next 12-24 months. Erste also brought down its nonperforming loan ratio toward 2.0%, underlying a strong managerial focus on asset quality. We believe these developments are preparing the bank well for a potentially challenging fiscal 2023, and supports our view of a comparatively strong credit rating among commercial banks globally. While the war in Ukraine and inflationary pressure continue to be economically challenging for the core markets...

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