Essen based National-Bank has accomplished a feat: Despite switching to a new core banking system, the regional bank achieved record earnings last year. Of course, at 73.6 million euros, the bank earned 4% less before taxes than in the previous year. However, this figure includes 24 million euros in material costs alone for the IT changeover, which is known internally as „Project Jupiter“.

„It was the largest project with a private commercial bank that Atruvia has managed since the GAD/Fiducia merger,“ explains CEO Thomas Lange in an interview with Börsen-Zeitung. "We managed the migration to Agree21 without any significant friction, even though important interfaces had to be reorganised.’

There are various reasons for the success of the bank, but Lange believes it is the regional focus that is paying off. „Regional is the new organic,“ he says. The corporate customers are predominantly SMEs, are mostly family-run, and have no interest in relocating production abroad. Owner-managed SMEs are also prepared to forego dividends to maintain the company, emphasises Lange. This brings stability to the banking business.

Lange explicitly does not join in the swan song for Germany as a business location, even though he is aware of the problem of high energy costs. He has mixed feelings about the change of government in the USA. For Europe, this is „a unique opportunity to come of age internationally and take its fate into its own hands."

Despite the strong earnings performance, however, it is also true that the size of the loan portfolio fell by almost 5% last year. Lange identifies three reasons for this: firstly, the lull in the commercial property market. „We have reduced our risk appetite to zero in this business segment,“ the banker explains. Secondly, the German economy was still in recession in 2024. „We have therefore also adjusted our risk appetite in business with SME corporate clients.“ The third point is again related to the IT changeover. The client advisors were primarily deployed to provide the bank customers with the best possible support during what became a smooth transition. „Against this background, the volume result is quite remarkable,“ says Lange.

The banker does not deny that the demand for loans was also meagre. It was essentially limited to replacement investment, and climate-related transition financing. However, initial talks are currently being held with potential new clients, and for example demand from Commerzbank customers has increased significantly in recent months. It is not the case that customers at Commerzbank, which is being pursued by Unicredit, have fled, says Lange. But they are looking around. And this is not limited to the SME sector. The same can be seen with wealthy private clients from the yellow bank.

However, this was not yet a factor in the overall surge in earnings in asset management last year – net commission income in this business segment jumped by almost 40% to 33.8 million euros. Lange anticipates good growth opportunities in asset management in the future. Especially as some competitors restructured their business areas and often put their own goals above the wishes of their customers with new service models.

Overall, National-Bank's gross profit rose by 4.6%, not least because net interest income fell only minimally. According to Lange, this was mainly due to the successful investment strategy for own investments (Depot A).

The IT changeover is reflected in administrative expenses, which rose by 16.7%. The project has cost the bank a total of almost 50 million euros over the past two years. Even if extraordinary costs have to be borne again this year, they will be at least 10 million euros lower than in the previous year. From mid-2025, costs are expected to return to the annualised level of around 40 million euros.

Given the good earnings performance, the Essen-based company intends to pay out an unchanged dividend of 0.90 euros per share. In terms of capitalisation, the bank can afford to do this, as the core capital ratio before appropriation of earnings rose to 13.8% as of 31 December, and is therefore within the target range of 13 to 15%. Nevertheless, Lange wants to further strengthen the capital position.