Letno poročilo 2007 - UniCredit Banka Slovenija dd

IntroductionStatement by the Chairmanof the Management BoardWe have justifiedour good namewith good results.Dear ladies and gentlemen, respectedbusiness partners,The year 2007 certainly will beremembered as a “banner year” inSlovenian economic history as a 6 %growth in the economy is the highestachieved since Slovenia’s independence.Additionally, it should not be overlookedthat in the same year Slovenia became amember of the European Monetary Unionand adopted the euro as its nationalcurrency. Important tax incentives wereintroduced, which, in turn, influencedthe growth of net salaries and thushigher personal spending. At the sametime, during the second half of the year,the Slovenian market was affected bythe world financial crisis, and, for theBank, changing the name from BankAustria Creditanstalt d.d. Ljubljana toUniCredit Banka Slovenija d.d. was ofgreat significance.It is difficult to assessaccurately which of the before mentionedevents had the most impact duringthe past year, but certainly we believethat adoption of the euro was a greathistorical step for the Slovenian economyand state as such. The introductionof a new currency caused banks tolose a portion of non-interest income,resulting from currency risk, foreignexchange operations, derivative financialinstruments, and payment transactions.On the other hand, we are aware that,in today’s competitive environment,obtaining a strong and stable internationalcurrency is a great economic advantage.Additional perks of a new currencyare faster transactions with lower risk,especially when dealing with foreignexchange operations, internationalpayments, the elimination of multipleforeign currency accounts, andstreamlined price comparison of goodsand services.In 2007 we generateda fourty percenthigher profit than thepreceding year.On the basis of these findings and ouractivities predominantly on the Slovenianmarket, we are happy to inform you thatwe have achieved outstanding results,surpassing even our internally set goals.The Bank’s 2007 results exceeded thoseof the preceding year and exceededthose of our domestic competitors. Thenet profit generated by the Bank wasalmost 40 % higher than a year beforeby which net interest income was almost9 % higher, and non-interest incomeeven 30 % higher. Notwithstanding thefact that the Bank increased the numberof employees and faced additional costsrelating to the name change as well aspreparations for Basel II, the increase ofoperative costs was only eight percent,which means that increasing costs weremore than once lower than the yearbefore.104 2007 Annual Report · UniCredit Bank