By Mateusz Rabiega
GDANSK (Reuters) -The Polish unit of Santander (BME:SAN) Bank on Wednesday posted a 9% rise in its preliminary fourth-quarter net profit that just missed analyst expectations due to higher legal costs for foreign currency mortgage loans.
Santander Bank Polska, the country's second biggest lender by market capitalisation, said quarterly net profit rose to 980.1 million zlotys ($244 million), below the 1.01 billion zlotys expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.
The lender said the cost of legal provisions for foreign currency mortgage loans was 1.01 billion zlotys compared with its earlier estimate of 856 million.
The results were also hit by spending on settlement programmes, which rose 80% to 329.8 million zlotys in 2023. The scheme allows the borrowers to convert their liabilities from Swiss francs to Polish zlotys.
The lender has so far signed nearly 9,300 settlements, which represents around 24% of the whole Swiss franc credit portfolio, said CEO Michał Gajewski on a conference call.
He added that the management expects to conclude more settlements than before.
In the fourth quarter, the bank signed 405 agreements, while the 2023 figure added up to 5,100 deals.
Polish banks have benefited recently from higher interest rates, but their earnings have been under pressure for several years from costs related to Swiss franc mortgage loans, and relief measures for homeowners introduced by the government.
Net interest income jumped 21% to 3.43 billion zlotys, slightly higher than expected, thanks to higher interest rates and growth in the bank's credit portfolio.
The bank's shares were down 0.6% at 1001 GMT.
mBank brokerage analyst Michal Konarski said that, despite the surprise on FX mortgage provisions, the results were "solid".
"The revenues especially looked good (...) the net income margin backtracked a little, but the net interest income stays at a high level," he added.
Maciej Marcinowski from Trigon brokerage wrote in a note that the results should give grounds to raise net profit estimates for 2024-2025 by 5-10%.
The bank also said it aimed to keep its cost of risk between 70 and 90 basis points, and its cost-to-income ratio below 35%, in its 2024-2026 strategy.
It also aims to pay out a dividend at a level approved by the financial regulator.
($1 = 4.0199 zlotys)