At its today session, the Council of the Croatian National Bank discussed the state of the banking system at the end of the third quarter of 2023 and adopted several decisions falling within its competence.

In the first three quarters of 2023, the total banking system assets were up 3.0% from the end of 2022 and at the end of September 2023 stood at EUR 78.2bn.

Loan quality continued to improve as the total amount of non-performing loans (NPLs) fell and their share in total loans decreased from 3% to 2.7%. The share of loans characterised by a significant increase in credit risk although still not in default (loans in Stage 2) also fell, from 14.2% to 13.4%, supported by new credit activity.

Capitalisation indicators remained high, despite a fall in the capital ratio from 24.8% to 23.3%. This was the result of the reduction in own funds due to the forthcoming dividend payments from retained earnings and a small increase in risk exposure.

The indicators of banking system liquidity, both short-term and structural were high, with the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) standing at 235.4% and the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) standing at 173.9%.

The CNB gave approval to the Supervisory Board of Istarska kreditna banka Umag d.d. to appoint Miro Dodić as the bank’s Chairperson and to the Supervisory Board of Kent Bank d.d. to appoint Aleksandra Cvetković as Management Board Member of that bank and to the Supervisory Board of OTP banka d.d. to appoint Ivan Šimićević as Management Board Member of that bank.

The members of the Council also adopted a decision on the issue of numismatic gold and silver coins featuring the Trsat Dragon, a sculpture located in Trsat, the city of Rijeka, commemorating the cultural heritage of the Republic of Croatia. The gold numismatic coin will be issued in a 100 euro denomination and the silver numismatic coin in a 4 euro denomination.