Slovakia’s banking sector managed to withstand the biggest shocks from the eurozone last year, according to the Report on the Status and Development of the Financial Market in 2012 prepared by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS).
Bank capital reached its highest level since 2005 last year, as the banks held on to most of their profits from 2011. The total profit of the Slovak banking sector dropped by one-third as compared to the previous year, largely because of a special bank levy and the rising cost of credit risks in the portfolio of loans and guarantees, NBS explained as reported by the TASR newswire.
Lower net interest margins and the continued stagnation of the Slovak labour market also had a negative effect on banks. Though it was not reflected in the volume of default on loans, household finances came under increasing pressure at the end of the year.
“The Slovak financial sector has been supported by positive developments in the financial markets, a slight recovery in housing loans, along with the continued growth in household financial assets,” the NBS report said, as quoted by TASR. “As a result, the volume of assets in banks and insurance companies, collective investment funds and in third-pillar supplementary pension funds increased.”
Source: TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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