Poland's Citi Handlowy does not expect high loan demand in 2023

GDANSK (Reuters) - The Polish banking unit of Citigroup does not expect high demand for loans in 2023, its chief executive officer said on Wednesday, although the lender said there was scope for increased interest income after a record last year.

Earlier on Wednesday, the bank reported record high net full-year results of 1.55 billion zlotys ($352.00 million) as well as record net interest income of 2.74 billion zlotys ($622.25 million).

"As for retail banking, we don't expect big demand for loans," CEO Elzbieta Swiatopelk-Czetwertynska told a conference, citing high interest rates and the creditworthiness of clients.

The bank's Vice President of the Management Board Natalia Bozek said interest income could meanwhile be "a little higher than what we're seeing now".

For the full year just reported, interest income increased more than threefold after the country tightened its monetary policy and the number of loans in the institutional banking segment grew.

Bozek said the management had yet to decide on dividend payments for the year of 2022, but said Citi Handlowy would base its decision on the current strategy that assumes paying a dividend of minimum of 75% of obtained net profit.

At 9:47 AM GMT the bank's shares were down by 0.25%.

($1 = 4.4034 zlotys)

(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega, Maria Gieldon, and Anna Banacka; Editing by Louise Heavens and Barbara Lewis)