Hypoteční banka, owned by KBC’s ČSOB bank, was the biggest mortgage lender on the Czech market in 2015, capturing 22.6 percent (CZK 51.2bn) of the market, according to the daily Hospodářské noviny. The newspaper cites the Ministry of Regional Development’s figures that show that Erste Bank’s Česká spořitelna came in a close second, by increasing its lending 40 percent to CZK 49.5bn, while Komerční banka, owned by Societe Generale, boosted its 2015 figures 33.6 percent to reach CZK 45.8bn. The daily points to all-time-low interest rates of around 2 percent as the main driver of the growth. Mortgage volumes in the Czech Republic came in at roughly CZK 200bn for 2015.
