Berlin (Reuters) – Inspired by the interest rate turnaround, the savings banks in Hesse and Thuringia made record profits last year.
The operating result before valuation rose by almost 42 percent to over 1.6 billion euros in 2023, as the Hesse-Thuringia Savings Banks and Giro Association announced on Tuesday. Like other institutions nationwide, the 48 financial institutions had to cope with a slump in new lending business. Loan commitments fell by almost 30 percent in the recession year of 2023. Due to the slowdown in construction, private housing loans even fell by 45 percent. Risk provisions in the lending business climbed from 13 million euros to 156 million euros, but according to association president Stefan Reuß, this remains “within the normal range”.
Reuss was cautiously optimistic for the current year. In the absence of economic momentum, loan and deposit stocks are likely to remain more or less stable. “The years of high inventory growth are over for the foreseeable future,” he said. On the income side, the savings banks are unlikely to achieve the double-digit growth rates of last year in terms of net interest income. However, Reuss said he was confident that the institutes would achieve a decent result again in 2024.
(Report by Klaus Lauer, edited by Philipp Krach. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for companies and markets).)