Bank Millennium's appalling Q2 results

In the first half of 2003, Bank Millennium earned zł. 33.8 million against zł. 119.7 million over the same period last year. In Q2 2003 the bank made a net profit of zł. 3.9 million, which is a weak result, bearing in mind that the bank included the sale of Pol-Card clearing center in its books for the period. If the transaction had been excluded Bank Millennium clearly would have posted a loss. "The negative result is due to the decision to not consolidate the shares in PZU, which produced zł. 25.2 million net profit in the first quarter," explained Millenium president Bogusław Kott. However, the main reason for the poor result is low revenues, which are due to cuts in interest rates and shrinking demand for loans. Millennium managed to lower its costs by 11.7%, while its share of bad debts amounted to 22.6% in the second quarter. (Parkiet, July 19-21, p. 3) M.M.