The National Bank of Greece, the country's largest lender, reported on Thursday a 5% drop in its first half net profits to EUR 835 million due to negative base effect, Reporter.gr informs.

The year-ago bottom-line was inflated by one-off gains. Excluding one-offs, net profits would have grown by 15%, the bank said. The bottom-line figure came in higher than expected. Analysts were looking for profits of EUR 815 million. Turkish acquisition Finansbank lent considerable assistance.

Finansbank contributed 29% of total group profit with net attributable profit for the first half up 22%, amounting to EUR 238 million. Southeast Europe investments contributed 13% to group's profit while they posted 74% growth to EUR 107 million.

Net Interest Income rose 20% to EUR 1.73 billion, while total lending grew by 25% to EUR 61.4 billion.

Customer deposits grew by 15.5% to EUR 63.9 billion. "As a result, our loan-to-deposit ratio stands at 94% compared with 86% in the first half, a comparatively low ratio which continues to provide us with a strong competitive edge, especially in the current liquidity crisis in international markets," the bank said in a statement.

Cost to income ratio fell to 47% from 49%.

"Strict cost control, despite the dynamic expansion of our SEE and Turkish franchises, ranks us in the best in class efficiency levels among our peers," the bank's CEO Takis Arapoglou said.