EIBank (

) reported pre-tax H1 profit in the amount of 17.33 mln leva (8.8 mln euro). Excluding the single transaction sum from a sale of shares, profit is down to 6.59 mln leva (3.3 mln euros), which is nearly three times up from H1 2007, the bank told Profit.bg.

On 30 June 2008 assets stood at 1.81 bln leva (925 mln euros), which ranks the bank ninth in Bulgaria with a market share of 2.8%.

EIBank's share on the market of crediting is 2.9%. The banks has 2.3% of the consumer credit market, 1.9% on the mortgage credit market and 2.1% in retail credits.

CEO Petar Andronov said the quality of the bank's portfolio is very high and ever improving. Reserves are at 21.2 mln leva (10.8 mln euros) according to the latest report.

The total amount of attracted funds reached 1.5 bln leva (766.9 mln euros), or 26.5% up compared with H1 2007. Deposits from corporate clients rose the most, by 27.6%.

“EIBank is continuing to develop deposit services. The “Top Deposit” plan is the most popular and its promotion was extended till the end of September 2008 due to a very high interest. The “Standard Deposit” plan saw the greatest hike (89%), followed by “Eurodeposit” and “Growing Deposit”.

The bank opened 9 new branches in H1 and their total number reached 135. The number of ATMs has been increased by 40% and of POS terminals by nearly 20% for the period.

Card transactions rose 38.7% in H1, the hike for MasterCard and Visa is 2.5 times.

EIBank is a unit of KBC – the second biggest banking and insurance group in Belgium, 11th in Europe and ranking in CEE top 5.

KBC has 771 branches and 552 insurance agents in Belgium. It operates in 35 countries and employs 57,000 people. KBC has more than 11 mln clients worldwide.