SaarLB with a solid first half of the year, stable cus-tomer loan portfolio, increase in capital ratios, and improved earnings.

• Significant increase in new business in the renewable energy sector as well as in the French market.
• Declining new business figures in the commercial real estate sector.
• Individual risk provisions reduced compared to the previous year; risk exclusively in already existing real estate financing.
• Positive cost situation, lower personnel and operating expenses.
• Further increased capital ratios, CET1 ratio significantly above plan.
• Conception and roll-out of “BankWesen 2.0” based on the successfully launched campaign of the previous year.
• Continued positive development in the home savings loan business at LBS Landesbausparkasse Saar.

SaarLB looks back on a solid first half of the year, during which new business figures in some segments developed below expectations, but significant growth was achieved in the areas of renewable energy project financing and the French business.

In our new business, we were overall below the value of the previous year period (EUR 1,026 billion) with EUR 884 million in the first half of the year. Despite the challenging market situation, we were able to generate significant growth in this segment in the areas of corporate customers in France, public sector, and renewable energy project financing.

Due to lower earnings from the deposit business and higher refinancing costs, earnings declined by almost 6 percent in the first half of the year compared to the previous year’s value.

Our credit risk provisions amounted toEUR 5.2 million, lower than the previous year (EUR 8.3 million). In addition, there was a higher reversal of general value adjustment provisions, which ultimately led to an improved risk result for the bank in the first half of the year.

We were able to reduce our administrative expenses further by 16% to EUR 43 million compared to the previous year’s value, particularly due to lower regulatory costs.   This resulted in an improvement in the Cost Income Ratio (CIR) to 57.5 % (previous year: 64.3 %).

Our pre-tax earnings are EUR 23.4 million, significantly above the comparative value for the same period in the previous year (EUR 20.2 million).

Looking at our capital ratios, we were able to continue the positive trend and achieve a further significant increase. Our common equity tier 1 capital ratio (CET1 ratio), which is the ratio of common equity tier 1 capital to total risk, increased from 13.3 % (30 June 2023) to 14.6 % as of 30 June 2024 and is above our planned figure.

You can also find our financial results in more detail in our half-year financial report, which is published on our website. In the first half of the year, we also initiated a number of other forward-looking themes for our Bank:

At the beginning of last year, we launched our “BankWesen” campaign, which puts our employees at the centre (“Banking (Bankwesen) lives from and through its bankers (BankWesen)”). We have now developed our campaign further and will continue on the successful path we have embarked on with “BankWesen 1.0,” making it even more visible and tangible in external use.

“After the great success of our ‘BankWesen’ campaign, we are now taking the next step with the further development of the campaign. With ‘BankWesen 2.0’, we are continuing to strengthen our employer brand and take advantage of the positive application effects for us as a Franco-German bank,” said  Dr Thomas Bretzger, Chairman of the Board of Management.

The internal initiative “perspective2025,” which was launched in 2023, has already successfully completed sub-projects in its individual thematic modules and will continue to work intensively on issues and topics that are and will be essential for us as a bank with a view to the future until the end of the project phase. “With our internal initiative, we set the course for a successful future of SaarLB last year. The individual thematic modules enable us to work on projects in a focused manner and make the bank fit for the future”, said the members of SaarLB’s Board of Management.

The first half of the 2024 financial year was positive overall for LBS Landesbausparkasse Saar. The home loan savings bank expects to meet its targets for both active and passive business. Of particular interest to customers are the low-interest home savings loans. After the number of home loan savings transactions almost tripled in 2023, the positive trend continues. At EUR 48.1 million as of 30 June 2024, new home loan savings business was already well above the previous year’s figure (EUR 32.5 million).

Important figures from us at a glance

Operating income

Administrative expenses

Cost-income ratio (CIR)

Result

Common equity tier 1 (CET1 ratio)

Note: Rounding differences are neglected.

Presentation of business development

Half-year financial report 2024