PKO BP creates zl. 550 million reserves to cover bad loans

The largest retail bank PKO BP, announced a profit of zl. 993 million for the third quarter and will possibly end the year with the best results of the banking sector. "I think we could close the year with a profit of between zl. 1.1 billion to zl. 1.2 billion," said PKO BP chairman Andrzej Podsiadlo. At the beginning of the year the management board forecast this year's net result at zl. 1.4 billion, however, at that time they expected to receive zl. 300 million aid from the National Bank of Poland. Lower earnings were also due to the bad debts ratio. This forced the bank to create reserves of zl. 550 million. According to Podsiadlo, the bank will also need to create further reserves in the fourth quarter, but this will not threaten PKO BP's annual results. Another immediate concern for the bank is the launch of a tender bid for an integrated IT system, which will probably be announced later this year. (Puls Biznesu, p. 9) M.T.