Banca Ifis: consolidated net profit up to 162 million Euro in 2024. Over the three years, accumulated profits of 463 million Euro, +12% compared to the 2022-24 Business Plan’s targets

The solid capital position allows the distribution of a total dividend of 111,5 million Euro for 2024 (2,12 Euro per share), roughly 40% higher than the Business Plan targets, of which 63,1 million Euro (1,20 Euro per share) distributed on 20 November 2024 and 48,4 million Euro (0,92 Euro per share) which will be distributed on 21 May 2025.

• The Bank’s digital transformation has been completed: new front-end platforms and internal processes position the Bank at the forefront of digital customer services.
• Leadership in sustainability confirmed, also evidenced by the improvement in the main ESG ratings, through an integrated and concrete approach aimed at creating a positive social impact for all stakeholders.
• In 2024, consolidated revenues amounted to 699,2 million Euro and reflect the positive performance of the commercial business, the Npl business and the Proprietary Finance unit, which offset the increase in the cost of funding.
• Solid capital base with a CET1 ratio of 16,10% including the profit for 2024, net of the dividend accrued, well above the capital requirements[1]. CET1 ratio is 100 basis points higher than the Business Plan target of 15.10%.
• The offer document relating to the tender offer promoted by the Bank pursuant to Articles 102 and 106, paragraph 4, of the TUF on all the ordinary shares of illimity Bank S.p.A. was filed with Consob.

2024 preliminary consolidated results
Reclassified consolidated data[2] – 1 January 2024/31 December 2024

• The Banca Ifis Group’s consolidated net profit amounts to 161,6 million Euro, up from 160,1 million Euro in 2023. The result brings cumulative profits for the three-year period 2022-24 to 463 million Euro, 12% above the targets outlined in the D.O.E.S. Business Plan. The results for 2024 are positively influenced by the performance of the commercial business and Npl Segment as well as the Proprietary finance unit.
• Net banking income, amounting to 699,2 million Euro, essentially stable with respect to the 704,6 million Euro in 2023, benefits from the growth of the Commercial & Corporate Banking Segment (+2,0%, or 6,8 million Euro, compared to 2023), the positive contribution of the Npl Segment (+0,6%, or 1,7 million Euro, compared to 2023), as well as the increase in results from the Proprietary Finance segment (+57%, or 35,1 million Euro, compared to 2023). These values offset the increase in the cost of funding.
• The credit cost is 37,7 million Euro, compared to 52,4 million Euro in 2023, confirming the prudent credit risk management in recent quarters.
• Operating costs of 406,9 million Euro (+3,1% compared to 394,6 million Euro in 2023) increase due to higher personnel expenses (169,9 million Euro compared to 163,8 million Euro in 2023), mainly due to the growth in the number of employees and the renewed NCBA, in addition to higher other administrative expenses (247,5 million Euro compared to 238,2 million Euro in 2023). These increases also reflect the integration of Revalea.
• Liquidity position, at 31 December 2024, is equal to approximately 1,4 billion Euro in reserves and free assets that can be financed by the ECB (LCR above 700%).

Capital requirements[3]

• The CET1 comes to 16,10% (14,87% at 31 December 2023) and TCR to 18,11% (17,44% at 31 December 2023), calculated including the profit generated in 2024, net of the dividend accrued. CET1 ratio is 100 basis points higher than the Business Plan target of 15.10%.

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Rome, 10 February 2025 – The Board of Directors of Banca Ifis met today under the Chairmanship of Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio and approved the 2024 preliminary consolidated results.

“Over this three-year period, we have successfully implemented the Business Plan, exceeding all the financial targets set and pointing the Bank increasingly in the direction of digitalisation and sustainability. The cumulative profit, which was achieved over the three-year period – 463 million Euro and 12% above the Plan targets – is also supported by the new dividend policy approved in 2023: the remuneration of shareholders, through the distribution of constant dividends, allows us to achieve a payout ratio of around 70%. These results were achieved while keeping the Bank’s solid capital base intact, with a CET1 of 16,1%, roughly 100 basis points above the Plan target of 15,1%. In line with our corporate vision that puts sustainability, in all its dimensions, at the centre, we have strengthened our commitment, with distinctive initiatives such as the Kaleidos Social Impact Lab, through which we have implemented around 40 high social impact projects for people in the areas in which we operate”, states Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, Chairman of Banca Ifis.

‘The net profit for 2024, at 162 million Euro, was above the Plan targets, just like the profit for the two previous years: this is a clear sign of the strength and effectiveness of our transformative actions. High levels of profitability and the new dividend policy inspired by our major shareholder have enabled us not only to be generous with our stakeholders, but also to position ourselves in a leading role in the complex Italian banking landscape. During the Plan period, the Bank recorded significant growth in its Corporate and Commercial Banking business, both in terms of profit and volumes. The Bank also completed the acquisition of Revalea from Mediobanca and still has capital levels that allow us to look forward to further short-term opportunities. Although against the backdrop of an environment that is certainly less generous for the banking sector, Banca Ifis can now look forward optimistically to a future in which it will be able to benefit from the path set out over the past three years to foster revenue growth in the commercial business, stable recoveries in the NPL business and increased results from the proprietary finance business,” says Frederik Geertman, CEO of Banca Ifis.

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The revenues of the Commercial & Corporate Banking Segment in 2024, up by 2,0% compared to 2023, reflect the dynamism and quality of work of the commercial network, which has allowed the business to grow despite lower demand for credit at a country level due to higher interest rates and has enabled the Group to offset the increased cost of funding. In 2024, the Bank created new solutions designed to strengthen the commercial offering to support businesses. These include new partnerships with leading international operators, such as Yamaha Motors, in the leasing and rental of electric bicycles for the tourism sector.

The NPL segment’s 2024 revenues, up 0,6% from 2023, reflect lower purchases of NPL portfolios. Cash recoveries on purchased portfolios in 2024, including 53 million Euro from Revalea, amounted to 422 million Euro, up 6% compared to 2023. To date, judicial and extra-judicial recovery activities do not show any significant negative impact from rising inflation and interest rates, but are impacted by the longer times of judicial activities.

The average cost of funding as at 31 December 2024 stood at 3,87%, up from the average cost in 2023 of 3,08%. The average spread, calculated as the differential between average customer interest and the average cost of funding, decreased slightly, from 2,38% in 2023 to 2,18% in 2024, with the trend taking hold mainly in the last quarter of the year as a result of the European Central Bank’s reduction in interest rates.

At around 2,9 billion Euro, the securities portfolio under Proprietary finance unit was slightly lower than the 3,1 billion Euro in December 2023. The duration of the portfolio was extended from 2,3 years in December 2023 to 3,8 years in December 2024, confirming active and opportunistic management, while maintaining a limited risk profile.

The asset quality ratios, the Gross Npe Ratio and the Net Npe Ratio, stand respectively at 5,4% and 2,9% (respectively 5,7% and 3,2% at 30 September 2024), up slightly from the previous quarter due to the increase in performing loans attributable to the seasonality of the Factoring Area, while gross impaired loans remained substantially stable in terms of amount compared to 30 September 2024. The asset quality ratio at 31 December 2024 would come in respectively at 5,0% and 2,5% excluding reclassifications resulting from the application of the New Definition of Default regulations to receivables from the National Health System (NHS), which are characterised by limited credit risk and long payment terms. The average coverage of non-performing loans was continuously strengthened from 35% in 2022 to 48% at 31 December 2024.

Capital ratios confirm the Group’s great solidity. Both the main indicators remain well above the minimum required levels, with a consolidated CET1 Ratio of 16,10% (14,87% as at 31 December 2023) and a consolidated Total Capital Ratio of 18,11% (17,44% as at 31 December 2023), calculated including 2024 profit, net of the dividend accrued.

The solid capital position allows the distribution of a total dividend of 111,5 million Euro for 2024 (2,12 Euro per share), roughly 40% higher than the Business Plan targets, of which 63,1 million Euro (1,20 Euro per share) distributed on 20 November 2024 and 48,4 million Euro (0,92 Euro per share) which will be distributed on 21 May 2025.

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Banca Ifis and its commitment to sustainability

 The year 2024 saw the completion of Banca Ifis’ three-year ESG Plan, which covered three main areas of intervention: social, governance and environmental. On the social front, the Kaleidos Social Impact lab, inspired by Chairman Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, implemented more than 40 initiatives for a total commitment of 7 million Euro, up from the 6 million Euro initially envisaged in the Plan. In order to quantify the social impact generated by these projects, Banca Ifis, in collaboration with Triadi – a spinoff of the Milan Polytechnic led by  Mario Calderini – has developed an impact measurement model that allows the return generated by these initiatives to be quantified in economic terms. Applied to all Kaleidos projects already implemented, the impact measurement model showed that one euro invested by Banca Ifis in social initiatives generated, on average, 5,1 euro of social value. The most significant initiatives carried out during the period included those in the field of medical-scientific research, with support for the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital Foundation in the research project aimed at assessing the safety and effectiveness of gene therapy with CAR-T cells on young patients with relapses or not responding to other currently available treatments for malignant tumours of the central nervous system. Another significant long-term collaboration is with the Advanced Biomedical Research Foundation in Padua, through the “Adopt-a-Researcher” projects and the support of studies in the area of neuromuscular and metabolic diseases. Again thanks to Kaleidos, Banca Ifis has intervened in support of projects aimed at the most vulnerable categories, such as the disbursement in favour of the Banco Alimentare Onlus Foundation, which has made it possible to distribute the equivalent of ten million meals to people in difficulty.

On the governance front, the Bank has set up a Sustainability Committee, chaired by Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, which has a steering role in all the initiatives that the Bank implements in the area of sustainability. These initiatives were rated positively by the international rating agency MSCI, which raised Banca Ifis’ rating from A to AA in 2024, positioning the bank among the leaders in the financial sector.

The sustainable innovation of Banca Ifis’ business model has also driven the implementation of initiatives with a highly positive impact on the environment. After joining as the first challenger bank in Italy to the United Nations’-sponsored Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) initiative to accelerate the sustainable transition of the international banking sector, the Group communicated its targets for the reduction of financed emissions on its loan portfolio by 2030. Over the course of the plan, Banca Ifis also developed several new products to accelerate the sustainable transition of businesses and our economy, such as solutions to foster sustainable mobility and energy transition, realised in cooperation with leading international partners.

Banca Ifis has also been committed on the social front through ‘Ifis art’, the project desired and conceived by Chairman Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio for the enhancement of art, culture, contemporary creativity and their values, also through public-private initiatives. The symbol of Ifis art – representing one of the greatest examples of corporate collection – is the collection of the Villa Fürstenberg International Sculpture Park – open to the public free of charge every Sunday – with over thirty works by some of the best-known contemporary Italian and international artists. Also as part of Ifis art, in the three-year period just ended, Banca Ifis accepted the appeal of the Ministry of Culture to rescue and secure The Migrant Child, one of only two works by the artist Banksy on Italian soil. The project, which also includes the restoration of the 15th-century palace on which the work is found, will start at the beginning of 2025 and be completed by 2026.

As part of its strategy to support activities with a cultural and social impact, Banca Ifis in 2023 acquired a 2,4% stake in the capital increase of the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana founded by Giovanni Treccani in 1925. In 2024, Banca Ifis also entered, with a minority stake, into the capital of The Street S.r.l., the company that manages the cultural hub of the Treviso Arts District and that, to date, controls the majority of 21Gallery, Il Cantiere, Ristorante Vite and the design brand Ondesign.

^[1] In January 2024, the Banca Ifis Group was notified of the new SREP requirements by the Bank of Italy. The new requirements provide for a CET1 of 9,0%, a Tier 1 Ratio of 10,90% and a Total Capital Ratio of 13,30% (including 1,0% P2G) and apply starting 31 March 2024.

^[2] Reclassifications and aggregations of the consolidated income statement concern the following:

• net credit risk losses/reversals of the Npl Segment are reclassified to interest receivable and similar income (and therefore to “Net interest income”) to the extent to which they represent the operations of this business and are an integral part of the return on the investment;
• net allocations to provisions for risks and charges are excluded from the calculation of “Operating costs”;
• cost and revenue items deemed as “non-recurring” (e.g. because they are directly or indirectly related to business combination transactions, such as the “gain on a bargain purchase” in accordance with IFRS 3), are excluded from the calculation of “Operating costs”, and are therefore reversed from the respective items as per Circular 262 (e.g. “Other administrative expenses”, “Other operating income/costs”) and included in a specific item “Non-recurring expenses and income”;
• the ordinary and extraordinary charges introduced against the Group’s banks (Banca Ifis and Banca Credifarma) under the Single and National Resolution Mechanisms (SRF and NRF) and the Deposit Protection Mechanism (DGS or FITD) are shown under a separate item called “Charges related to the banking system” (which is excluded from the calculation of “Operating costs”), instead of being shown under “Other administrative expenses” or “Net allocations to provisions for risks and charges”;
• the following is included under the single item “Net credit risk losses/reversals”:
  – net credit risk losses/reversals relating to financial assets measured at amortised cost (with the exception of those relating to the Npl Segment mentioned above) and to financial assets measured at fair value through other comprehensive income;
  – net allocations to provisions for risks and charges for credit risk relating to commitments and guarantees granted;
  – profits (losses) from the sale/repurchase of loans at amortised cost other than those of the Npl Segment.

^[3] The CET1, Tier 1 and Total Capital at 31 December 2024 include the profits generated by the Banking Group in 2024, net of the dividend accrued.