The Postal Bank (LBP) indicated on Friday in the margins of its annual results that it had a target of 200 million euros in savings this year, after 125 million euros last year.
This rationalization effort was initiated with the arrival of Stphane Dedeyan as chairman of the board of directors of the public bank last summer, after the surprise departure of Philippe Heim. Stphane Dedeyan highlighted during a press conference selectivity in recruitment and replacements as well as a 30% reduction in the investment budget in new IT and technological projects.
A presentation support also evokes a rigorous discipline of expenses, particularly external ones.
The year 2023 was particularly difficult for retail banks in France: they saw their credit margin erode, due to the rise in interest rates, and had to take their hands into their portfolios to better remunerate the ‘savings, Livret A at the head.
The Postal Bank started with an additional handicap: its operating expenses in this area were in 2022 higher than its net banking income (NBI), the equivalent of turnover in the sector. Banking activity as a whole lost 321 million euros last year, LBP also announced.
The hole is particularly large in the retail activity, with asset management and wealth banking associated with the Corporate and Investment Bank (BFI) having a surplus of 291 million euros.
Closure of Ma French Bank
The good year 2023 of CNP Assurances, a 100% subsidiary, allows the LBP group, ranked last in Europe by the European Banking Authority (EBA) on solidity criteria, to return to the green in 2023, with 995 million euros in net profit.
The arrival of Stphane Dedeyan, who wishes to develop synergies between banking and insurance, coincided with a shift in the strategy of the public bank, owned by the La Poste group, itself owned by the Caisse des dépts et the state.
The production of real estate credit, the margin of which is compressed by the rise in central bank key rates, for example fell by half between the first and second half of the year.
In the second half of the year we had a credit production policy that was more respectful of margins, of the economic situation, and more attentive to the macroeconomy, commented Stphane Dedeyan. The bank also announced on December 21 the closure of its online bank, My French Bank.
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