Comdirect: Nine-month pre-tax profit of €106.9m

02.11.2016 - comdirect: Nine-month pre-tax profit of €106.9m

• Earnings of almost €300m in the first nine months
• Return on equity target for 2016 as a whole firmly in sight
• B2C growth: 44 thousand more custody accounts and €2.2bn net fund inflows to custody accounts
• Innovations in the third quarter: multi-banking service and MoBox young person's app

Quickborn. The comdirect group realised pre-tax profit of €106.9m in the first nine months of 2016 (previous year: €77.9m). 'This result puts us on the home stretch towards our profitability target for 2016 as a whole', says comdirect bank AG CEO Arno Walter. comdirect announced its return on equity target of over 19% for 2016 as a whole halfway through the year, which was equivalent to pre-tax profit of over €110m. Walter adds, 'We really put our foot down over the last nine months, introducing a new, fresh corporate design and a whole range of new products and services, including the comdirect trading app, share savings plans, the ETF bonus savings plan as well as our own consumer loan product. The MoBox banking app specially designed for young people and our multibanking service on the website are brand new.' With multi-banking, comdirect is the first German bank to offer customers the opportunity to bring together and manage all their accounts, cards and custody accounts across banks in the Personal Area. comdirect has been offering a multi-banking service in its banking app for iOS since 2010. The service is regularly used by around 100 thousand customers. It is now making the service available centrally via its website, making it similarly available for all mobile devices. 'comdirect is developing from a direct bank into a digital centre for all customer financial issues. We have taken a major step here with our multibanking service, on which further innovations will be built,' says Walter.

The comdirect group generated total income of €298.0m in the first nine months of the year. The increase on the previous year (€282.9m) is due to the non-recurring income of around €41m before taxes accrued in the second quarter resulting from the membership of VISA Europe and its integration into VISA Inc. USA. The extraordinary income is reported under result from financial investments. At €159.9m, net commission income was 9% below the previous year's record level (€174.8m). In addition to the moderate fall in order figures (from 11.0 to 10.8 million) as a result of a quiet trading summer, this is due to the share price level having declined on average during the year, which impacted sales follow-up commission from the funds business and led to lower average order volume. In view of the still lower market interest rates, net interest income after provisions for possible loan losses fell to €91.8m, 10% below the previous year (€101.8m). The administrative expenses were lowered 7% in the first nine months of 2016 to €191.1m (previous year: €205.0m). Some of the market-induced decline in earnings was thus compensated for by active cost and investment management.

The number of customers in the B2C business line (comdirect bank AG) has increased by 56 thousand to 2.057 million since the start of the year. Over the same period, the number of custody accounts rose by 44 thousand to 988 thousand and the number of current accounts increased by 68 thousand to 1.334 million. Total assets under custody rose to €42.9bn in the first nine months, compared with €39.9bn at the end of 2015. Net fund inflows stood at €3.3bn, of which €2.2bn was invested in custody accounts (previous year: €1.7bn). According to Walter, 'The figures prove that comdirect is continuing to grow. The number of accounts and custody accounts, as well as assets, have again increased significantly, and this is precisely what we intend to continue driving forward in the future. We intend to attract even more customers with our innovative products. We are building smart and intelligent solutions that save our customers time and money and make their lives just that little bit easier.' Only recently comdirect received the Silver Award at the renowned Efma-Accenture Awards in Barcelona for its smartPay innovation. The smartPay app allows customers to photograph, pay and subsequently archive invoices with a mobile device - retrievable anytime, anywhere.

The number of customers in the B2B business line (ebase GmbH) rose by 2 thousand to 991 thousand in the first nine months. Total assets under custody grew to €27.0bn (year-end 2015: €25.6bn). Net fund inflows, which were almost entirely attributable to the portfolio volume, stood at €1.6bn.

The comdirect group's total number of customers had increased to 3.048 million by the end of the first nine months of the year and its total assets under custody rose to €69.9bn (year-end 2015: €65.5bn). Net fund inflows to the group stood at €4.9bn overall, of which €3.7bn flowed into custody accounts.

Overview