KB prezent. angl - Komerční banka

Alexis Juan
The product and service range and quality of service are important for clients. Shareholders, for their part, are interested
in the structure of financial and business results. Can you mention their most important parameters?
With a profit of CZK 9.262 billion, Komerční banka ranks among the most profitable companies in the Czech market. We have achieved
this result by developing the Bank’s business activities, particularly in retail banking, and also thanks to successful cost control.
In comparison with 2002, the Bank’s total costs have dropped by 8%, i.e. more than CZK 1 billion. Further improvements in the quality
of the loan portfolio and the release of provisions and reserves were also factors at play in this respect. Taking into account the drop in
interest rates in the Czech market and its impact on the Bank’s revenues, the increase in the net profit by 6% is a very good result.
I am convinced that this favourable result confirms the Bank’s improving efficiency, and the shareholders will certainly
appreciate the significant growth of KB shares in 2003 and early 2004.
Komerční banka also very actively supports public-benefit projects. Let us recall that Komerční banka is the main partner
of the National Theatre and the Czech Rugby Union. Would it be fair to say that Komerční banka continues to channel
support into culture, amateur sports and education?
Yes, these are the main pillars of our sponsorship strategy. In addition to the National Theatre and the Czech Rugby Union, I would
like to point out, for example, our partnership with the Prague Symphonic Orchestra FOK and the Prague French Film Festival.
In sports, we have supported the Czech Union of Disabled Athletes. Last year, KB also financially supported the transportation of
a new elephant to the Prague Zoo and the landscaping of its enclosure, damaged by the floods in the summer of 2002.
In the education sector, we focus on co-operation with universities and student organisations. Our work with students was
appreciated last year, in a poll conducted by AIESEC – KB was ranked the most desired employer by university graduates.
Through the KB Jistota foundation, we have provided, for instance, significant financial support to the Children’s Eye Clinic in
Prague 2 and to the hospitals in Sušice and Podolí.
I am very glad that Komerční banka is not only a major player on the Czech financial market but that it also behaves as
a responsible citizen aware of the broader social context in which it operates.
You mentioned the Bank’s primacy in the poll for the most desired employer. In 2003, Komerční banka won several other
important awards – experts voted it the most dynamic bank of the year, and the general public voted it the trustworthiest
bank. How do you personally view these awards?
I have to say that I am highly appreciative of all the awards. I see them as rewards for the whole Bank and all of its
employees. I also perceive them as an immense commitment, and a challenge to improve our performance further. You can
recognise a good bank and a good banker because they are the ones who talk to their clients, listen to their clients, and think
about clients’ needs. A bank that talks to its clients, that maintains a dialogue with its clients, is a bank that takes clients and
their needs really seriously. To conclude, I would therefore like to express my thanks to all our clients for the trust with which
they approach us and also to all our employees for their unwavering efforts to accommodate clients’ needs. I am confident
that Komerční banka will be a place of pleasant and effective interaction for everyone.