Drop in NBG profit in Q4 on provisions, trader income

National Bank of Greece (NBG) on Tuesday reported sharply lower net profit in the fourth quarter compared to July-to-September on the back of weaker trading and net interest income and higher provisions for impaired loans.

NBG, Greece’s second-largest bank by assets and 40 percent owned by the country’s bank rescue fund, said net profit from continued operations reached 18 million euros versus a net profit of 210 million euros in the third quarter.

“At present, visibility as regards the future is extremely limited,” chief executive Paul Mylonas said in a statement.

“NBG will… do everything it can possibly do to implement efficiently the new policies and solutions approved by national and European authorities to ease the impact from the unprecedented shutdown of large swaths of the economy.”

NBG said its ratio of nonperforming exposures (NPEs), which includes nonperforming loans and other credit likely to turn bad, fell to 31.3 percent from 33.5 percent in September.

Trading income fell to 4 million euros in the fourth quarter from 129 million in the previous quarter when the bank booked sizable gains from the sale of sovereign bonds amounting to 126 million euros.

Mylonas said the group would be ready to launch a large securitization of more than 6 billion euros of NPEs “as soon as market conditions permit.”

[Reuters]