Credit Agricole hit its 2022 profit target a year earlier as lower costs on bad loans and rising revenue in all business sectors boosted quarterly results higher than expected, said France’s second-largest bank. .
The bank stressed that it will present a new strategic plan for 2025 on June 22, after net profits reached 5.4 billion euros for 2021, much higher than the target of 5.4 billion euros.
Other key targets for 2022, such as the cost / income ratio below 60% and the return on tangible equity above 11% were achieved, with the 2021 figures being 57.8% and 13.1% respectively.
The group, which has a policy of paying half the profits to shareholders, said it would propose a dividend of 1.05 euros per share for 2021, which includes 20 cents of the 2019 dividend that was not paid.
Speaking to reporters, Credit Agricole CEO Jerome Grivet declined to comment further on the group’s profit-sharing policy, explaining that any changes would be introduced with the new strategic plan in June.
Profit for the quarter rose to 1.428 billion euros from 124 million euros a year ago when impairments of 778 million euros for Italy’s operations hit the results.
Risk costs, reflecting the provisions for non-performing loans, decreased by 34.5% in the quarter, to 328 million Euros.
Overall, revenues increased to 5.8 billion Euros, higher by 10% compared to the corresponding period of 2020.
Source: Capital
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