For comparison, in the first half of 2022, the total profit of the banking sector was 132.526 million euros, while last year in total it was 321.718 million euros.
Banks' interest income in the first six months of 2023 amounted to 574.84 million euros, which is 2.2 times more than in the first half of 2022, while interest expenses amounted to 64.133 million euros, which is also an increase of 2.2 times.
Bank commission income in the first half of this year amounted to 168.42 million euros, which is 5.6% more than in the first half of 2022, while bank commission expenses increased by 8.1% to 48.976 million euros.
At the end of June 2023, banking sector assets totaled EUR 27.234 billion, which is 1.7% or EUR 470.336 million less than at the end of 2022, when banking sector assets amounted to EUR 27.705 billion.
However, despite the big increase in profits, there is little evidence the banks were much more willing to lend than hitherto. The amount of loans issued by banks to non-bank customers at the end of June this year was 15.622 billion euros, which is 0.3% or 40.68 million euros less than at the end of 2022.
Among that figure, the amount of loans issued to domestic customers amounted to 13.181 billion euros at the end of June, which is 0.3% or 34.666 million euros more than at the end of last year.
The amount of loans issued to domestic households amounted to 6.084 billion euros at the end of June, which is by 1.5% or 92.666 million euros more than at the end of 2022, while the amount of loans issued to domestic non-financial corporations amounted to 6.23 billion euros, which is a decrease of 1.9% or 121.772 million euros, including 3.526 billion euros issued in loans to small and medium enterprises, which is 1.4% or 48.413 million euros more than at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, banks had attracted 22.448 billion euros in deposits at the end of June, which is 2.8% or 656.851 million euros less than at the end of 2022.
Among them, the amount of domestic customer deposits decreased by 4.1% or 791.225 million euros compared to the end of 2022 and was 18.745 billion euros at the end of June.
The amount of deposits of domestic households decreased by 1.1% or 109.179 million euros in the first half of the year, amounting to 10.233 billion euros at the end of June this year, while the amount of deposits of domestic non-financial corporations decreased by 0.5% or 34.209 million euros, amounting to 6.979 billion euros.
Data from the Bank of Latvia also show that the market share of the five largest banks in assets at the end of June 2023 was 89.08% (at the end of 2022 - 88.8%), in loans to non-bank customers – 89.62% (90.18%). but in deposits of non-bank customers – 90.35% (89.88%).
