ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece’s Alpha Bank reported higher net earnings for the first half of the year on Friday, backed by strong fee income and credit expansion.
The country’s fourth-largest by market value, in which Italian bank UniCredit has a 20% stake, reported normalised net earnings of 459.9 million euros ($525.2 million) versus 436.7 million euros in the first six months of 2024.
Net fee income rose by 16.4% year-on-year to 229 million euros in January to June period. The bank’s non-performing loan ratio fell to 3.4% at the end of June, from 3.7% in 2024.
The bank’s chief executive officer, Vassilios Psaltis, said that the results are in line with Alpha’s strategic plan.
“We sustained strong commercial momentum, with 0.9 billion euros in net credit expansion, 0.9 billion euros increase in deposits and 0.5 billion euros in net sales,” Psaltis said in a press release.
Alpha Bank, which acquired the small Astro Bank and the asset management company Axia Venture, reported net interest income of 794.7 million euros, down 4.6% year-on-year.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair and Jacqueline Wong)
