BNP Paribas BP bank counts on more customer acquisitions and increased lending activity

Listed lender BNP Paribas Bank Polska is counting on the following quarters to bring greater customer acquisition and increased lending activity for the bank. The third quarter will be the first full quarter of the bank's return to the mortgage market, the bank's CEO Przemek Gdanski said.

"We have an improvement in the acquisition of new personal accounts and I hope that this is the beginning of a trend that is particularly important for us. Where we need to improve the effects of our activities is in customer acquisition and the matter of greater lending activity and capturing this economic growth that is currently taking place and will hopefully continue," Gdanski said told a conference.

The bank's gross loans at the end of June 2024 amounted to PLN 88.58 billion (EUR 20.6 bln), down 1.4 percent year on year and 0.3 percent quarter on quarter. The decrease in retail loans was 1.6 percent quarter on quarter and the increase in corporate loans was 0.5 percent quarter on quarter.

BNP said cash loan sales in the second quarter amounted to PLN 1.1 billion (EUR 256 mln), up 14 percent quarter on quarter and 12 percent year on year. Mortgage sales amounted to PLN 264.6 million (EUR 61.6 mln), up 182 percent year on year and 273 percent quarter on quarter, but had remained low earlier.

BNP Paribas Bank Polska had been inactive in the mortgage market for a long time, but recently decided to gradually return to it.

"This return effectively took place in the middle of the quarter (...) Our production of these loans was at a relatively low level," Gdanski said.

"In the third quarter, the sales results will, I think, be more attractive," he added.

In its half-yearly report, the bank said it was becoming more active in the mortgage market, but was continuing to be cautious and selective about acquisitions - the customer's instalment-to-income ratio must not exceed 35 percent.

Sales of personal accounts in the second quarter amounted to 50,700, down 6 percent year on year, but up 6 percent quarter on quarter.

seb/ han/