The banking arm of the German post office has increased pre-tax profit in the first quarter by E134 million, or 20%, thanks to growth in retail banking, which was supported by the earlier acquisition of BHW.
Postbank’s pre-tax profits improved to E208 million due largely to a 21.7% growth in revenues for its retail banking arm, which was boosted by the contribution made by the recently-purchased BHW building society.
Total revenues came in just shy of E1 billion at E997 million, a 6.3% increase on the previous year. Meanwhile, net income increased by E9 million to E512 million. However, the figures fell just short of analysts’ expectations.
According to the Financial Times, Postbank has predicted the positive trend to continue in the remaining quarters of the year. The bank said that it expected 2006 to significantly exceed last year’s results as it reaped the benefits of BHW’s integration.