BNP Paribas Bank Polska unlikely to pay dividend in short term -CEO (updated)

BNP Paribas Bank Polska SA

11/08/2022 10:54

(Adds details)
    GDANSK, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Polish lender BNP Paribas Bank Polska  BNP1.WA 
will probably not pay out a dividend "in the short term", Chief Executive
Przemyslaw Gdanski said on Thursday.
    "Since 2016, the bank has paid 4.75 billion zlotys ($1.05 billion) in
charges" to the State Treasury, he told a news conferemce. "During this period,
shareholders have invested over 4 billion zlotys of new funds in our company. We
have not paid a penny of dividends and the situation we have now means that the
probability of paying a dividend in the short term is extremely low."
    Asked about number of applications for credit holidays, he said the figure
is in line with bank's expectations. He did not give details.
    The payment holiday scheme is intended to help mortgage owners whose monthly
instalments have surged due to rising interest rates by allowing them to skip a
maximum of eight payments in 2022 and 2023.
    "We are under two weeks in terms of availability of credit holidays. The
number of applications is in line with our expectations...we process these
requests very efficiently. We didn't have any disturbances," Gdanski said.
    "We probably all need a longer observation period to be able to determine
how many of these applications will be ultimately filed and what the total cost
of the holidays will be," he added.
    BNP Paribas Bank Polska last month estimated a negative impact on its
financial results due to credit holidays in a range of 700 million zlotys to 915
million zlotys. The impact was calculated on basis of assumption that 50-60% of
eligible clients will participate in credit holidays.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2YW2TR
    Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this month that 500,000
mortgage holders had already applied to take a break from payments.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ZE0XH
    
($1 = 4.5259 zlotys)

 (Reporting by Adrianna Ebert and Mateusz Rabiega; Editing by Jason Neely and
Mike Harrison)
 ((Adrianna.Ebert@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 88;))