Operating revenue rose to HUF 138bn from 124bn as net interest revenue increased 11pc and net revenue from commissions and fees grew 6pc, Jelasity said.

Retail outlays climbed 65pc and corporate outlays surged 97pc, he added.

Stock of client loans, including corporate bond subscriptions, was up 17pc at the end of June from twelve months earlier.

Deputy-CEO Laszlo Harmati said retail lending stock climbed 25pc during the period. Mortgage outlays jumped 110pc and new personal loan contract volume increased 42pc, he added.

Corporate lending stock rose 7pc to HUF 1,147bn.

The lender's NPL ratio fell to 1.4pc from 1.7pc twelve months earlier.

Meanwhile, OTP earnings fall

Second-quarter after-tax profit of OTP Bank, Hungary's biggest commercial lender, fell 7pc year-on-year to HUF 305.8bn, an earnings report released ahead of the opening bell on Wednesday shows.

OTP noted that it had booked the the full-year amount of sectoral taxes in the first quarter. Had those items been booked evenly within the year, Q2 after-tax profit would have dropped by 13pc to HUF 255.9bn, it said.

OTP also highlighted the negative impact of changes to the interest rate cap regulation and the fair value adjustment of subsidised retail loans and interest rate hedge transactions on Q2 earnings.

Net interest income rose 13pc to HUF 541.4bn and net revenue from commissions and fees was flat at HUF 152.4bn.

First-half after-tax profit fell 7pc to HUF 482.7bn. When adjusted for the pro-rated amount of the sectoral taxes booked in Q1, profit edged down 2pc to HUF 580.3bn.

Net interest income increased 13pc to HUF 1,068.7bn. Net revenue from commissions and fees was practically unchanged at HUF 290.3bn.

Total risk costs reached HUF 83.7bn, down 16pc from the base period.

Diluted earnings per share came to HUF 1,889.

First-half after-tax profit at OTP's core business in Hungary rose 7pc to HUF 482.7bn.

Profit of OTP Bank Russia edged down 2pc to HUF 106.4bn and profit of its Bulgarian unit, DSK Group, was flat at HUF 103.3bn. Profit of Ipoteka Bank, in Uzbekistan, surged 38pc to HUF 34.6bn. Profit of OTP Bank Ukraine dropped 43pc to HUF 17.2bn.

OTP's foreign units accounted for 80pc of after-tax profit in H1.

OTP had total assets of HUF 46,667bn at the end of June, up 5pc from twelve months earlier.

Gross stock of client loans, adjusted for foreign exchange rate changes, rose 17pc to HUF 27,452bn and FX-adjusted client deposits increased 12pc to HUF 33,747bn.

The ratio of stage 3 loans under IFRS 9 edged down 0.3pp to 3.1pc.

At a press conference after the publication of the report, deputy-CEO Laszlo Bencsik said the lender had taken legal steps regarding the interest rate cap — which shaved HUF 30.4bn off Q2 earnings — and expected a "fair solution" soon.

Fielding questions, he said 68,500 of the bank's clients, with loans of HUF 220bn, were impacted by the rate cap.

Bencsik acknowledged the effect of the stronger forint on Q2 earnings, pointing out that 70pc of group-level revenue came from foreign businesses.

He underscored the impact of the Home Start subsidised lending scheme on balance sheet growth.

The report shows OTP signed HUF 723bn of the Home Start contracts by the end of June, ten months after the launch of the scheme.

Bencsik said an agreement announced late in July to acquire the parent company of Luminor Bank, a peer in the Baltic region, could pave the way for further acquisitions. He added that the purchase price for Luminor had been under book value.

Management raised full-year guidance for net interest margin to over the 4.34pc in 2025, after it reached 4.61pc in H1.

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881.

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