Globally, challenger banks are on the rise – powered by fintech mindset they provide clever solutions to the customers but often fail to deliver solid and sustainable profit. In the meantime, in SEE there is one major challenger bank – tbi, and it keeps on showing remarkable financial results – with the first half of 2023 being another proof of that.
tbi bank’s consolidated unaudited financial results for H1 2023 show net profit of EUR 18.4 million. Throughout the first half of the year tbi onboarded new merchant partners, including new verticals, and is now present in more than 21.000 merchant partner check-out points on its main markets of operation – Romania, Greece and Bulgaria. This impressive reach helped the bank become one of the leaders in terms of provided Payment Plans in all three countries. Additionally, strong new performance can be seen in all business lines.
In H1 2023 tbi bank serviced 1.1 million loan applications in Romania Greece and Bulgaria, twice as much as for the same period of 2022. Moreover, 70% of applications for retail loans were made through self-service digital channels (compared to 48% in H1 2022) and contribute strongly to the business results. By June the bank disbursed nearly 320.000 payment plans at the amount of EUR 443 million – 35% more compared to the same period of 2022.
tbi reports an impressive 46% growth in total assets as to the end of H1 2023, reaching EUR 1.2 billion (from EUR 830 million at the end of H1 2022). The loan portfolio increased to EUR 915 million at the end of June 2023 (42% growth compared to H1 2022).
Based on such positive business performance, tbi bank’s revenue grew by 28% to EUR 95 million, allowing operating profit for H1 2023 to reach EUR 68 million.
Also, tbi bank’s deposit portfolio reached EUR 911 million at the end of June 2023 – well outperforming the market and demonstrating a solid growth of 55% compared to June 2022. The main driver was retail term deposits portfolio, where the increase was even higher with 61% compared to June 2022.
The increase in the bank’s general expenses by 25% to EUR 46 million was mainly driven by accelerated growth of loan portfolio and investments into new business lines (neon solution) and markets (Greece scale-up).
At the end of the period the bank had a strong and well secured position from both liquidity and capital sides – on consolidated basis the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) being at 389% (much above regulatory minimum) and the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) - 21.5%. tbi bank’s operations are showing improving discipline in terms of cost management (47.6% cost to income ratio) and are combined with return on loan portfolio at 21.4%, allowing the return on assets (ROA) and the return on equity to reach 3.2% and 19.2%, respectively.
“In times when many challenger banks struggle to find a working business model, we at tbi continue to prove that you can innovate and be profitable", says Petr Baron, CEO of tbi. "Our dedicated team doesn’t stop delivering best-in-class solutions for our customers. The neon card launched in Bulgaria and the constant development of the self-service channels on all our main markets are best examples for ultimate mobile-first daily banking experience. Looking towards the end of 2023 we will continue to improve our products proposition and expand our merchant network in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece”.
About tbi bank
tbi bank is a mobile-first challenger bank in South East Europe and regional leader in alternative payment solutions, building an ecosystem by combining financing and shopping to address customers’ needs. It focuses on helping merchants to grow their business as well as providing consumers with financial products and services that make their lives easier. Currently operates in Romania, Greece, Germany, Bulgaria and Lithuania. Through various digital channels and trusted partnerships with nearly 20,000 merchant locations, tbi has a customer base of 2 million clients and issued nearly 550,000 loans in 2022. Its business model and customer-focused approach resulted in becoming one of the most profitable and efficient banks in the region.
