Urbo Bankas, a Lithuanian capital bank, generated a net profit of EUR 2.2 million in the first quarter of this year. Compared to January-March last year, the bank’s profit is 21% lower this year. This change was driven not only by changes in the business environment, but also by investments in changing the bank’s identity.

In February this year, the bank changed the name Medicinos Bankas, which had been used since the bank’s foundation, and became Urbo Bankas. Marius Arlauskas, Head of Administration, notes that the final financial results of the first quarter were determined by several factors.

“Geopolitical and global developments are also significant for Lithuania, as we are an integral part of the global economy. Strengthening the Bank’s identity and decisions on network efficiency and modernization have been costly. We are confident that the changes and investments made will significantly strengthen the Bank’s position in the market in the long term and will contribute to the sustainable growth of the Bank’s results,” says M. Arlauskas.

This year Urbo continued to successfully grow the bank’s loan and deposit portfolios. The bank’s loan portfolio grew by 22.28% to EUR 329 million in the last 12 months, while deposit volumes increased by 40.58% to EUR 488.7 million.

Net interest income of Urbo increased by 17.6% to EUR 5.4 million in the comparative period.

The Bank’s assets at the end of March 2024 amounted to EUR 577 million and were 36.1% higher than a year earlier (EUR 424 million).

As a result of the reduction of non-core activities and optimisation of the bank’s network, Urbo’s net service fee and commission income in the first quarter was EUR 1 million or 26.7% lower than in the same period last year, while due to the shrinking of the net currency market in Lithuania, the net profit from foreign currency operations decreased by 40.3% to EUR 0.5 million.

Shareholders’ equity of Urbo Bankas has increased by 14.9% over the last 12 months and amounted to EUR 58.4 million on 31 March this year (at the same time last year: EUR 50.9 million).

With 284 employees at the end of March, Urbo Bankas’ customer service network consisted of 26 territorial branches.