ING Bank Slaski in talks with KNF on previous years' dividend payment (updated)

ING Bank Slaski SA

02/11/2023 12:51

(Adds comments on mortgage payment holiday extension, from
paragraph 4)
       GDANSK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Poland's ING Bank Slaski
 INGP.WA  has started consultations with Polish financial
regulator KNF on the prospect of making a dividend payment for
previous years, Deputy CEO Bozena Graczyk said in a press
conference on Thursday.
    "We are waiting for the results of these consultations,"
Graczyk said. The lender's CEO Brunon Bartkiewicz added the
consultations were at a "very early" stage.
    The lender's shareholders opted in April to allocate 513.9
million zlotys ($123 million) to reserve capital intended for
dividend payouts, after its management recommended withholding
payouts for 2022. 
    The bank's management board has said it would consider
paying an advance on its dividend for 2023 if significant risks
fail to materialise. 
    Graczyk added that the bank has an estimate of the cost of
extending relief measures for mortgage payers - so-called
"credit vacations" - but cannot comment on it until the proposed
regulations take effect.
    Poland's outgoing government extended a mortgage payment
holiday scheme for next year, introducing specific criteria, but
it is not clear if a new government, to be formed following
elections last month, will support the proposal.
    "Of course, we have estimates (regarding the extension of
payment holidays), but it is difficult to refer to them until it
is certain that these regulations will come into force and in
what form they will come into force," she said.
    The lender's Polish rival mBank  MBK.WA  estimated such a
cost at about 400 million zlotys, and Alior Bank  ALRR.WA  at
about 200 million zlotys.
    ING Bank Slaski made a profit of 1.16 billion zlotys ($276.8
million) in the third quarter, slightly above analysts'
estimates, after a loss a year earlier due the cost of the
scheme.
    ($1 = 4.1914 zlotys)

 (Reporting by Anna Banacka and Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by
Jason Neely and Jan Harvey)
 ((anna.banacka@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 65;))