Komercijalna Banka Makes 68.4 Million Euros in Profit in Nine Months: Fee Income Jumped 21.9 Percent, and the Bank Says It Cut Its Fees

Komercijalna Banka earned 4.2 billion denars in the first nine months, or about 68.4 million euros. That's 1.1 percent less than last year, but the planned gross profit was met at 111.1 percent. The drop, the bank says, comes mainly from a smaller capital gain on the sale of repossessed property, not from regular operations.

Regular operations, on the contrary, are growing. Net fee and commission income reached 1.1 billion denars, or 17.94 million euros, which is growth of 21.9 percent and 22.6 percent above plan. The bank explains this with a larger volume of business with clients, "under conditions of reductions made to fees in the domain of payment services in the country."

So the service is cheaper and the income bigger. That can happen, if transactions grow fast enough. The number alone isn't proof of a general price rise: for that you'd need to compare fee schedules and transaction counts. But when fees grow more than five times faster than net interest income, the question of how much an account actually costs per year is entirely legitimate.

Net interest income rose 3.8 percent, and the bank records its biggest growth in the state sector, thanks to larger investments in government securities. The securities portfolio is 706.55 million euros, 12.7 percent more than at the end of 2025. When the state borrows, somebody earns well on it.

There are signs of pressure too. Interest expenses rose 6.9 percent because of larger term deposits, so the net interest margin fell from 3.58 to 3.46 percent. Operating expenses are up 5.2 percent, mainly because of salaries. Impairment jumped 22.1 percent, to 503.9 million denars, because of deterioration in part of the corporate portfolio.

Profit isn't a sin, and a bank with 3.25 billion euros in assets has to earn. But digitalization, bigger volumes and lower costs ought to be felt at some point on the other side of the counter too. The bank says it cut its fees. Every customer can check that on their own statement.