Credit: BIL

On Thursday 31 March 2022, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg SA (BIL) announced its financial results for the year 2021; the bank posted a net income of €135 million (up 34% over one year).

In 2021, BIL Group reported a net income after tax of €135 million, a 34% increase compared with 2020.

The Group’s increased focus on its core businesses and markets, combined with its ability to accompany clients and the economy in a comprehensive way sustained the increase of revenues. In 2021, total income amounted to €632 million, up 15% compared with 2020. The core operating revenues of its commercial and financial markets activities reached €573 million. 

Negative interest rates continued to weigh on revenues but were compensated for by continued loan growth, which increased by 6.1% to €16.3 billion. Assets under Management (AuM) increased by 5.2% reaching €45.9 billion and customer deposits increased by 4.6%, reaching €20.7 billion. In addition to the dynamism of commercial activities thanks to ongoing support to individual and business clients in their projects, non-recurring items, such as capital gains from the bank’s investment portfolio and the partial sale of BIL’s stake in Bourse de Luxembourg S.A., also contributed to the growth of revenues in 2021.

In this challenging, yet growing economic environment, BIL continued to invest heavily to be fit for the future. The implementation of a new core banking system, in the final stages of development, additional recruitment to boost human capital, and investments in regulatory requirements led to a 6% increase of expenses, reaching €442 million.
The strong post-pandemic recovery of the Luxembourg economy and the bank’s main foreign market economies has also led to a significant improvement in the quality of assets, which had been impacted by the pandemic since the second quarter of 2020, and as a consequence, to a decrease of the core cost of risk by 40%.

Marcel Leyers, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BIL, commented: "Thanks to the engagement of our teams and the strength of our services, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg achieved a strong performance in 2021. This performance acknowledges our long-term commitment towards our retail, private and corporate banking clients, and it confirms our major role in financing the economy".

Looking forward, uncertainties surrounding the global economy are set to remain high throughout 2022. BIL Group noted that it was closely monitoring the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. From a risk management perspective, BIL’s exposure to Russia is relatively small. The direct impacts of the conflict on the 2021 Consolidated Financial Statements are limited. Credit exposure towards Russia reached 0.3% of total exposures as of 31 December 2021; all exposures are well collateralised and all collaterals are located in Western Europe. However, the overall impact of the crisis remains unknown. BIL added that it expected corporate and individual clients to be impacted, as energy and commodities prices surge.

The 2021 Financial report will be published on 28 April 2022 following the general assembly of BIL shareholders.