“We continued our stable and growing operating trends which resulted in positive financial results the bank and local group achieved in 2025. We have seen an uptrend in lending in both segments, retail and corporate, client deposits also recorded stable growth rates, while the use of our digital channels continued to maintain a solid upward trajectory,” said Christoph Schoefboeck, CEO of Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. (“the Bank”), commenting on the operations in 2025 and added: “A very strong capital position and high level of liquidity enable us to, not only adequately support our clients, continue with our digital innovations and further strengthen our position on local market, but to provide an additional boost to the growth and development of the entire Croatian economy.”
According to the unaudited consolidated financial statement, the EBC Group’s1 net profit after minority interests in 2025 was EUR 249 million, up 0.8% from EUR 247 million in 2024. EBC Group’s net interest income was EUR 442 million, up 1.8% compared to EUR 434 million in 2024. Net fee and commission income was EUR 144 million, up 7.5% from EUR 134 million in 2024.
EBC Group's total assets as of 31 December 2025 were EUR 17.6 billion, up 6.8% from EUR 16.5 billion at YE2024. Total loans to customers as of 31 December 2025 were EUR 10.5 billion, up 8.5% from EUR 9.7 billion at YE2024. Total deposits of EBC Group's customers as of 31 December 2025 were EUR 13.6 billion, up 8.3% from EUR 12.6 billion at YE2024.
The result achieved in 2025 was driven by the increased volume of new lending and payment transactions. The growth in retail was mainly boosted by the increased demand for housing loans, while in the corporate sector the new lending volume was primarily driven by SMEs, large corporate and real estate financing. At the same time, the operating costs also grew, particularly in personnel costs as the result of continued investments in employees and other administrative costs as the result of the unit cost increase. The highest increase was recorded in IT costs. Another factor that impacted the overall result were higher allocations of risk costs compared to 2024.
According to the unaudited unconsolidated financial report, which includes the results of the Bank excluding affiliated companies, net profit in 2025 was EUR 230 million, up 1.8% compared to EUR 226 million in 2024. Net interest income was up 5.9%, from EUR 375 million in 2024 to EUR 397 million in 2025, while net fee and commission income was up 15.3%, from EUR 98 million in 2024 to EUR 113 million last year, mostly as a result of the integration of the card issuing segment from Erste Card Club in the Bank. It is important to note that the above integration had a positive impact on the Bank’s performance result in 2025, while simultaneously affecting the increase of both revenues and costs.
The Bank's total assets as of 31 December 2025 were EUR 16 billion, up 6.2% from EUR 15.1 billion at YE2024. Total loans to customers as of 31 December 2025 were EUR 9.3 billion, up 8.4% from EUR 8.6 billion at YE2024. Total deposits of the Bank’s customers as of 31 December 2025 were EUR 12.9 billion, up 7.7% from EUR 11.9 billion at YE2024.
1 The consolidated financial statement for the EBC Group includes, in addition to Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d., the following affiliates: Erste Nekretnine d.o.o., Erste&Steiermärkische S-Leasing d.o.o, Erste Bank a.d., Podgorica, Erste Card Club d.o.o., Izbor Nekretnina d.o.o. and Keks Pay d.o.o.
THE UPWARD TREND IN THE USE OF DIGITAL CHANNELS CONTINUES
The Bank’s digital solutions maintained a continued and stable growth trend in 2025. As at 31 December 20254, George online banking had a total of around 589,000 active users, up 7% from 550,000 active users at YE 2024. Total transaction volume of EUR 8.2 billion was up 17% compared to 2024. The KEKS Pay app reached the number of 567,000 users as at 31 Decemeber 2025, up 13.4% from 500,000 at YE 2024. KEKS Pay’s total transaction volume of EUR 390 million in 2025 was up 37% compared to 2024.
ACHIEVED IMPORTANT STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES RELATED TO THE FUTURE BUSINESS MODEL
Apart from continuous efforts on the further digitalization of products and services, as well as the automatization of internal processes, two major strategic milestones related to the future business model of the bank have been achieved. Following the integration of the card issuing segment from Erste Card Club (“ECC”) into the bank in October 2024, last year in July an agreement was signed on the sale of the acquiring business segment of ECC to Global Payments s.r.o (“GP”), while the transaction was finalized in January 2026. of ECC to GP was completed in January 2026. This was a logical step forward in the strategic orientation towards improving the overall model of the cards’ payments business. Thus, the cooperation with GP will be intensified, which will raise the quality of the card acceptance segment, increase the level of customer satisfaction, both merchants and credit card users, and support the development of payment opportunities and innovative functionalities. On the other hand, the internal start-up KEKS Pay became a separate company, currently owned 100% by the bank. The goal was to provide the new company more room for independent development, innovation, and strategic initiatives, including planned expansion into new markets.