• Achmea Bank N.V. reports for 2021 an operating profit before tax of EUR 52 million (2020: EUR 37 million), EUR 39 million after tax (2020: EUR 28 million) 
• The Common Equity Tier 1 Capital Ratio remains strong at 20.9% (2020: 20.4%) 
• Achmea Bank aims to grow and diversify its balance sheet, mainly through mortgages via the Achmea Mortgage Investment Platform and other third party partnerships 

Achmea Bank N.V. reports an operating profit before tax of EUR 52 million (2020: EUR 37 million). The improvement of the operating profit is due to lower impairment charges (EUR 12 million), lower operating expenses (EUR 4 million) and a higher fair value result (EUR 10 million) which are partly being offset by lower fee income (EUR 8 million) and an interest margin decline of EUR 3 million. 

The interest margin decreased from EUR 141 million to EUR 138 million. The lower interest margin relates to a decreased mortgage portfolio combined with lower margins for an amount of EUR 10 million due to the highly competitive mortgage market. This effect was partly compensated by the net interest margin on the acquired mortgage portfolios in 2020 and 2021 (EUR 7 million). Furthermore the compensation for early redemptions amounts to EUR 39 million (2020 EUR 34 million). 

As of 1 October 2020, Achmea's operational mortgage activities have been centralised within Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance (SAREF), as part of the strategy of Achmea to increase its market share in the Dutch mortgage market in the coming years. This transfer includes the origination of mortgages for Achmea Pensioen- en Levensverzekeringen N.V., which resulted in a decrease of fee income for Achmea Bank of EUR 8 million. 

The fair value result (EUR 5 million) is an accounting result that is mainly compensated in other reporting periods, generally reflecting a pull to par as the underlying derivatives (used for hedging interest rate risk) approach maturity. 

Improvement of the macro-economic outlook results in a positive development of housing prices in the Netherlands. Together with the impact of the implementation of a second generation of the IFRS 9 risk model, the loan loss provision decreased with EUR 14 million (2020: EUR 28 million) in 2021. This decline reflects the inherent low credit risk profile of the Achmea Bank’s mortgage portfolio. 

Compared to 2020, operating expenses slightly decreased with EUR 4 million. The bank-related levies increased by EUR 4 million and the servicing costs related to the acquired portfolios rose by EUR 1 million, which were compensated by lower cost allocation of EUR 8 million as a result of the aforementioned mortgage originations and servicing centralization in 2020 and lower project costs of EUR 1 million.

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