‘Our core objective remains to keep customers at the centre of everything we do’ – BNF Bank CEO

Gzira-headquartered BNF Bank has just announced a strong financial performance for 2021, registering a profit before tax of €9.1 million.

This evidences significant improvement over 2020 numbers, when a profit before tax of €5.3 million was registered.

The bank’s net operating income increased by €3 million – growing from €24.2 million in 2020 to €27.2 million in 2021. This, BNF said, was ‘a key contributor to improved profitability’.

A comparably lower increase of €1 million in operating expenses resulted in an improved cost-to-income ratio of 62.9 per cent, down from 2020’s 66.5 per cent.

BNF Bank maintained its cautious provisioning stance and further increased credit provisions by €1.1 million in 2021.

“We continued to work relentlessly towards our targets, driven by our long-term vision to take the Bank to the next level. Our intention is to continue working on the key pillars of our Vision 2023 strategy of financially sustainable growth, internationalisation, and technology transformation,” BNF Bank CEO and Managing Director Michael Collis said.

“Our core objective remains to keep our customers at the centre of everything we do, while providing a competitive suite of products delivered through an omnichannel approach,” he continued.

Mr Collis went on to express his satisfaction at the bank’s performance, saying that, notwithstanding the challenging environment, the team achieved the bank’s strategic objectives for the year and returned a positive financial result.

“Our continued focus on serving our customers translated into another year of profitable growth for BNF Bank,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Micallef added.

“In the background, to ensure that our growth is financially sustainable, regular financial planning exercises are carried out to anticipate and withstand challenges that we might face,” he concluded.

BNF Bank’s financial statements for 2021 are included in its Annual Report, which can be found here.