PRESS RELEASE

RESULTS AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2020

  • PROFIT NET OF COSTS RELATED TO THE VOLUNTARY REDUNDANCY PLAN AND

THE CLOSURE OF 300 BRANCHES AS WELL AS OTHER NON-RECURRING

  • COMPONENTS1: € 330 MILLION

  • PROPOSED DISTRIBUTION OF A DIVIDEND OF 6 CENTS PER SHARE, IN LINE WITH
    ECB GUIDELINES

PROFIT FROM OPERATIONS2 AT € 1,722 MILLION:

  • ESSENTIALLY STABLE (-1.4%) WITH RESPECT TO 2019, DESPITE THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC CRISIS WHICH EXPLODED AT THE START OF 2020 AND IS STILL ONGOING;
  • SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN THE SECOND HALF (+43.5% COMPARED TO THE FIRST HALF) THANKS TO THE STRONG SALES RECOVERY, DESPITE THE SECOND WAVE OF THE PANDEMIC

CORE REVENUES3 AT € 1,876 MILLION IN THE SECOND HALF, + 5.9% H/H OPERATING EXPENSES AT € 1,181 MILLION IN THE SECOND HALF, -5.4% H/H

THE EXCELLENT OPERATING RESULTS MADE IT POSSIBLE TO SUPPORT:

  1. Result net of non-recurring components detailed in point 6 of the explanatory notes of this press release.
  2. Effective from the closure of the accounting period as at 31 December 2020, the reclassified income statement is presented in a format that shows the profit (loss) before tax from continuing operations, by excluding not only the accounting impacts relating to the PPA, amounting to € -41.5 million, and the change in the company's creditworthiness on certificate issues, amounting to € -11.7 million, but some extraordinary components involving a significant amount, which have a notable influence on the economic results of the periods being compared, preventing a full understanding of the actual operating performance. These components are shown, net of the associated tax effect, in separate items of the reclassified income statement and are attributable to expenses related to the company restructuring for € 187.0 million, systemic charges of €
    138.9 million, income deriving from the impact of the realignment of tax values to book values for € 128.3 million and the impairment of goodwill of € 25.1 million. For more details, please refer to the explanatory notes of this press release.
  3. Aggregate represented by net interest income and net fee and commission income.

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    • THE ACCELERATION OF DERISKING: DISPOSAL OF € 1.3 BILLION IN NON-
      PERFORMING LOANS
  • THE STRENGTHENING OF NPE COVERAGE TO 50% (+500 BASIS POINTS Y/Y)
    • THE COSTS RELATING TO THE VOLUNTARY REDUNDANCY PLAN AND THE
      CLOSURE OF 300 BRANCHES (€ 259 MILLION PRE-TAX)

COST OF RISK AT 122 BASIS POINTS OF WHICH ROUGHLY 50 BASIS POINTS RELATING

TO THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY4

CONFIRMATION OF THE SOLID EQUITY POSITION WITH A CET 1 RATIO FULLY PHASED

AT 13.3% AND AN MDA BUFFER FULLY PHASED AT 4495 BASIS POINTS

IMPORTANT ACCELERATION IN CUSTOMER DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS, WITH AN

EXPANSION IN THE RANGE OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED (TRANSACTIONS

ON ON-LINE CHANNELS +26%)

CORE NET PERFORMING LOANS6 TO CUSTOMERS AT € 98.4 BILLION (+8.0% Y/Y)

CORE DIRECT FUNDING7 AT € 100.0 BILLION (+13.9% Y/Y)

NEW DISBURSEMENTS TO CUSTOMERS AMOUNTED TO € 27.68 BILLION, UP BY 29.2% COMPARED TO 2019, OF WHICH € 10.2 BILLION RELATING TO THE MEASURES SECURED BY STATE GUARANTEES

SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN MORATORIA TO € 12.2 BILLION, DOWN BY

ROUGHLY € 4 BILLION COMPARED TO AN ORIGINAL € 16.1 BILLION, WITH A

VERY LOW DEFAULT RATE ON EXPIRED MORATORIA, EQUAL TO 0.5%

DECREASE IN NON-PERFORMING LOANS CONTINUES:

    • NET NON-PERFORMING LOANS OF € 4.3 BILLION (-22.6% COMPARED TO

    • DECEMBER 2019)
  • NET NPE RATIO9 DOWN TO 3.9% FROM 5.2% AT THE END OF 2019 AND GROSS NPE RATIO OF 7.5%, (9.1% AT THE END OF 2019), WHICH FALLS TO 6.7% IF CALCULATED USING THE METHODOLOGY ADOPTED BY THE EBA
    • TEXAS RATIO10 IMPROVED TO 39.0% (52.3% IN DECEMBER 2019)
  1. Management estimate.
  2. Includes the issue of AT1 financial instruments for € 400 million finalised in January 2021.
  3. Mortgages, loans, current accounts and personal loans.

7Current accounts and deposits.

  1. Management figure.
  2. Ratio obtained from the relationship between net non-performing exposures and total exposures relating to the capital aggregate of "Loans to customers measured at amortised cost".

2

EXCELLENT LIQUIDITY POSITION, WITH UNENCUMBERED ELIGIBLE ASSETS OF

ROUGHLY € 20 BILLION

MAJOR PUSH ON THE INTEGRATION OF SUSTAINABILITY POLICIES

  • INCORPORATION OF THE ESG MANAGERIAL COMMITTEE CHAIRED BY THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND OF THE SUSTAINABILITY ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
    • ADOPTION OF ESG PARAMETERS IN THE TOP MANAGEMENT REMUNERATION

        • POLICIES
        • 100% USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGIES
      • CAP OF € 5 BILLION FOR COMPANIES THAT INVEST IN SUSTAINABILITY OTHER INITIATIVES TO TACKLE THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY:
      • PROTECTION OF THE SAFETY OF CUSTOMERS AND PERSONNEL WITH

CONTINUOUS INFORMATION, FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF SMART WORKING AND

  • THE PROVISION OF PPE TO OFFICE AND NETWORK PERSONNEL

  • SUPPORT FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY WITH SOCIAL PROJECTS CONNECTED
    WITH THE PANDEMIC EMERGENCY FOR MORE THAN € 6 MILLION

During the year, despite the difficult macroeconomic scenario, still impacted by the Covid- 19 health crisis, the Group's commercial and organisational efforts enabled a robust recovery in operating results. In particular, in the second half, the core operating income (net interest income and commissions) rose by 5.9% and operating costs fell by 5.4%. As a result, the profit from operations in the second part of the year came to € 1.015 billion (+43.5% compared to the first half of 2020), reaching € 1,722 million for the whole year.

This level of profitability allowed the Group, among other things, to:

  • significantly ramp up the derisking process, with transfers of non-performing loans totalling € 1.3 billion;
  • further strengthen the level of coverage of non-performing positions, bringing it to 50% (+500 basis points compared to the previous year);
  • expense the costs relating to the strategy of further boosting the efficiency of the cost structure through the rationalisation of the sales network (planned closure of 300 branches in the first half of 2021) and the stipulation of an agreement relating to the solidarity fund to support the retirement of around 1,500 people.

10 The Texas Ratio measures the ratio between the net value of impaired loans and the Group's tangible equity.

3

Net of non-recurring effects, the year closed with an adjusted net profit of € 330 million. Also considering non-recurring components, 2020 closed with a profit of € 21 million.

These results enabled the Board of Directors to propose, in line with the guidelines of the ECB, the distribution of a dividend of € 6 cents per share, totalling € 90.9 million.

Extremely healthy equity and liquidity positions confirmed:

  • CET1 Ratio phased-in and CET1 Ratio fully phased at 14.6% and 13.3%, respectively;
  • MDA buffer on TCR phased-in and fully phased respectively of 553 basis points and 388 basis points, respectively at 614 and 449 at adjusted level, including the issue of AT1 financial instruments carried out in January 2021; both well above the long-term targets
  • LCR 191% and NSFR >100%11.

The substantial coverage of the loan portfolio also continued, through a constant process of monitoring of the customer's credit profile, with special attention on the moratorium positions granted.

DIGITAL BANKING

In 2020, the outbreak and the persistence of the Covid-19 pandemic has strongly accelerated the demand for digital services. On the back of the project developments already undertaken in prior years under the Group's Digital Omnichannel Transformation Programme, Banco BPM could respond to this trend, and has also developed new products and tools that allowed customers and employees to make greater use of digital channels.

All the main Digital Adoption indicators reported a sharp increase over the previous year: transactions completed online grew by 26%, contributing to driving the share of remote transactions by Individuals above 80%.

The growth reported by the mobile channel was even greater (+25% of Banco BPM users and + 65% of transactions), also thanks to the launch of the new banking APP - designed based on a new mobile-first approach - which was immediately well received by Group customers.

Even our commercial approach to customers has been geared toward a greater use of the omnichannel logic:

  • the introduction of a wide set of Customer Journeys, based on the use of advanced analytics and on the full integration of remote contact channels linked to the activities of the Branch/Manager Network, sustained the commercial performance, driving more than 20% of total retail sales12
  • new offering modes have been launched during the year to strengthen our service in areas with a greater value added, for example:
    • financial advisory and wealth management propositions can now rely on the Remote Advisory service for which all Personal managers have been authorized;
    • management of the new opportunities offered by the green initiatives put in

place by the government for small and medium enterprises, i.e.

  1. Monthly LCR in December 2020 and management NSFR relating to the fourth quarter of 2020.
  2. Data referring to Individuals.

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Banco BPM S.p.A. published this content on 09 February 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 09 February 2021 17:06:04 UTC.