Hungary's banking sector became profitable in 2016, after suffering losses in 2015, it has been revealed.
The National Bank of Hungary said that of the 111 lenders over which Hungary’s central bank has regulatory authority, 76 were profitable and 35 were loss-making at the pre-tax level.
According to MTI, combined after-tax profit of banks in Hungary in 2016 was 456.2 billion HUF (1.5 billion euros) compared with a loss of 29.1 billion the previous year. Combined pre-tax profits of banks in the black came to 527.2 billion HUF, while those in the red had losses of 17 billion forints.
Provisions plunged 75 percent in the period from 478.1 billion forints to 118.3 billion.
Total assets of the banking sector stood at 34,185 billion HUF (EUR 111bn) at the end of December, up about 4 percent from twelve months earlier.
Gross lending stock of banks was up 9.1 percent 17,841 billion. Net loans rose by 13.4 percent to 16,707 billion.
The ratio of non-performing loans — those past 90 days due — was 6.4 percent, down from 8.1 percent at the end of Q3 2016 and down from 10.6 percent at the end of 2015. In the retail segment, it stood at 12.7 percent while in the corporate segment it was 5.4 percent.
The capital adequacy ratio of the banking system eased to 20.1 percent at the end of December from 20.4 percent at the end of September but was up from 19.9 percent at the end of 2015.
Domestically-owned institutions held 54.7 percent of the banking system’s total assets at the end of the year, down from 55.5 percent from a year earlier.