Triodos Bank Half-year figures 2011

  • 7% growth
  • 12% increase in lending to sustainable businesses

During the first six months of 2011, Triodos Bank’s balance sheet total increased by 7% to EUR 3.7 billion. Growth during the same period last year was 11%. Growth maintained despite challenging economic conditions.

Lending to sustainable business and projects rose by 12%, in line with ambitious targets for 2011. Triodos Bank’s net profit is EUR 7.6 million, a growth of 4% compared to the same period in 2010.

Funds entrusted to the Triodos Group, comprised of Triodos Bank, Triodos Investment Funds and Triodos Private Banking grew by 4% to EUR 5.8 billion.

Customer numbers were up by over 31,000, or 11%, to 316,000.

“Our lending to sustainable companies, where depositor’s money delivers real improvements to people’s quality of life, is growing significantly in all our markets” says CEO, Peter Blom. “This growth is a strong evidence of Triodos Bank’s robust business model. While the financial crisis has put pressure on its return on equity, Triodos Bank remains a strong and profitable financial institution, making more impact on people and the environment than ever before.

“The legacy of the financial crisis has resulted in continued uncertainty in the banking industry. Many banks have found it difficult, and sometimes failed, because they were unable - or perhaps in a few cases, unwilling - to transform their business models. Triodos Bank sees these challenges as an opportunity to spur debate about meaningful reform in the financial sector. Triodos Bank wants to serve as a point of reference for a new way of banking.” 

The amount of funds entrusted to Triodos Bank, mainly comprising savings and notice period deposits, increased by 7% during the first six months of 2011.

The credit portfolio continues to perform well. While the addition to the provisions for bad debts has decreased slightly, compared to the same period last year, they remain at relatively high levels given the difficult economic conditions facing many borrowers - most notably, for some energy from biomass projects.

Capital Raising Success

Triodos Bank has always had a strong capital position. To maintain it, it is raising new capital in each of the countries where it operates during 2011, both by making depository receipts available throughout the year and through targeted campaigns.

This strategy has proved to be successful. The ongoing availability of depository receipts, combined with two campaigns in Spain and Belgium, raised over EUR 37 million by the end of July. Campaigns in other countries are planned for later in the year. A target of EUR 60 to 90 million in new capital is expected to be reached by the year end.

Basel III

Triodos Bank’s solvency ratio (or BIS-ratio), an important measure of a bank’s solvency, was 14.3% at 30 June 2011, compared with 14.7% at the end of 2010. Triodos Bank already complies with both new capital and liquidity requirements, as recently published by the Basel Committee, and better known as Basel III. The regulations are required to be fully implemented by 2019.

Although not required to, Triodos Bank performed the stress test that the European Banking Authority has required of a subset of European banks to test their resilience to a major economic shock, based on publicly available scenarios and methodology. The results confirm a strong financial position with a total capital ratio of 13.6% and a Core Tier 1 of 12.7% after a two year stress scenario. This is more than 2.5 times higher than the minimum 5.0% Core Tier 1 ratio required for the purpose of this stress test.

Funds under Management

Funds under management, which mainly consist of investment funds managed by Triodos Investment Management, as well as Private Banking, grew to EUR 2.1 billion during the first six months of the year. Overall growth in the investment funds and Private Banking combined was down by 1%, compared with growth of 6% during the same period of 2010.

Triodos investment funds declined by 3% to EUR 1.7 billion, compared to an increase of 6% during the same period of 2010.  While there was growth in some investment funds, two which previously benefited most from Dutch government tax benefits - the Triodos Groenfonds and Triodos Cultuurfonds - declined due to government decisions to decrease the tax benefits related to them.

Triodos Private Banking grew to EUR 397 million, up 11% compared to growth of 10% during the same period of 2010.

About Triodos Bank 

Founded in 1980, Triodos Bank has become a reference point for sustainable banking globally.

Triodos Bank is an independent bank that promotes sustainable and transparent banking. It does not see any conflict between a focus on people and the planet and a good financial return. Instead it believes that they reinforce each other in the long-term.

Triodos Bank has branches in the Netherlands , Belgium , the UK , Spain and Germany . The Bank is a global authority in the field of microfinance in developing countries, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Triodos Bank N.V. has a full banking licence and is registered with The Nederlandsche Bank N.V. (the Dutch central bank) and The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets.

Global Alliance for Banking on Values

Triodos Bank co-founded the Global Alliance for Banking on Values , a network of thirteen sustainable and successful banks. Together these banks want to grow sustainable banking and its impact substantially.

Sustainable Bank of the Year

In 2009 Triodos Bank was voted the most sustainable bank of the year, because of the leadership and innovation Triodos Bank has shown for the past 30 years in integrating sustainability in all its activities. An international jury, appointed by the Financial Times and the IFC - a member of the World Bank – voted for the winners at the FT Sustainable Banking Awards.