While profits at four leading Czech banks – Česká spořitelna, Komerční banka, ČSOB and UniCredit Bank – increased by a mere 4 percent y-o-y to CZK 46.57bn, the volume of paid dividends jumped by a third, writes the daily Lidové noviny. The banks’ French, Belgian and Austrian mother companies intend to tap a total of CZK 38.5bn this year to counterbalance losses on their home markets. Economist Pavel Kohout told the daily that Austrian banks, for example, posted high losses on their home markets. The daily points to the fact that while the mother companies always tapped profits made by their Czech branches, they never took more than 80 percent, which they plan to take this year.
