Latvian banking sector makes EUR 236 million in 2017 profit

RIGA - The Latvian banking sector closed 2017 with EUR 236.101 million in aggregate profit, down 48 percent from 2016, according to the data released by the Finance and Capital Market Commission (FCMC).

In December, the banking sector suffered a EUR 0.879 million loss.

FCMC spokeswoman Agnese Licite told LETA that ten Latvian banks and four branches of foreign banks made profit in 2017. Their aggregate share in the banking sector’s assets was roughly 92.3 percent.

At the end of 2017, the banks had EUR 28.397 billion in aggregate assets, down 3.7 percent from the end of 2016. From the end of November, the banks’ aggregate assets had grown by 0.03 percent at the end of December.

Deposits with the Latvian banks dropped 5.1 percent year-on-year to EUR 20.267 billion at the end of last year. Over the month, aggregate bank deposits rose 0.6 percent.

Licite noted that resident deposits rose somewhat in December as households increased their deposits by 3.2 percent, nonfinancial institutions’ deposits grew 1.4 percent and government deposits contracted 15.6 percent. Nonresident deposits rose 1.1 percent in December.

The banking sector’s aggregate loan portfolio decreased 4.6 percent from the end of 2016 to EUR 14.44 billion at the end of 2017. Compared to the end of November, the loan portfolio shed 0.9 percent.

Licite said that in December the resident loan portfolio was down 0.5 percent, as corporate loans declined by 0.3 percent and household loans by 0.6 percent. The portfolio of nonresident loans dropped 3.8 percent.

In 2016, the Latvian banking sector showed an aggregate profit of EUR 453.754.