The United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), which is fully owned by the National Bank of Greece (NBG), has announced a net profit of BGN 63.88 M in 2010.

The general assembly of the UBB shareholders has decided to add its 2010 net profit to the bank's capital, which made 2010 the seventh year in a row in which the UBB will not be paying out dividends.

The 2010 profit will thus be added to the profit from past years amounting to the undistributed BGN 905.9 M, thus boosting UBB's own capital to BGN 1.091 B.

The net revenues of UBB for 2010 amounted to BGN 309 M but BGN 237.2 M were spent to cover credit loss provisions, a situation that the annual report of the UBB has attributed to the unfavorable business environment and the economic slowdown as a result of the crisis.

The National Bank of Greece owns 99.9% of the United Bulgarian Bank, with 0.1% being owned by local shareholders.

“UBB is doing relatively well against the backdrop of the general economic and banking stagnation. The major factor that has led to the substantial decrease of the profit is the drastic increase of the credit loss provisions, which is the major consequence for the banking sector in a time of crisis,” Stiliyan Vatev, CEO of UBB, has explained, as cited by Dnevnik.

The bank report says that its non-performing loans as of June 2011 amount to 13.5% of the total number of credits; the non-performing corporate loans are almost 10%.

UBB's credit portfolio amounted to BGN 5.8 B in 2010, its deposits from firms and households amounted to BGN 4.4 B, and its assets were BGN 7.5 B, a decrease of 8.3% year-on-year.

The funds attracted from other banks have declined substantially, with the funds from its parent company, the National Bank of Greece, declining by 35% - BGN 1.6 B at the end of 2010 compared with BGN 2.5 B a year earlier.