Corrado Passera/Illimity
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Italian neobank Illimity sees profits and lending soar in the second quarter of 2021
The challenger bank continues to post growing profits quarter on quarter, with this latest period being up by almost a fifth.
Profitability is something that had long-evaded digital banks around the world, but Italian neobank Illimity has just finished one of its most profitable periods yet.
In the first half of 2021, Illimity turned over a profit of €14.9m, up 18 per cent on the previous quarter, which saw the bank generate €12.6m in net profit, which also equates to an 85 per cent leap in profits between the first half of 2020 and the first half of 2021.
Before tax, the bank’s profit is even more impressive. Illimity posted a pre-tax profit of €22.4m in the second quarter of 2021, up 17 per cent on the previous quarter and an increase of 123 per cent over the same period in 2020.
As well as strong profitability, net customer lending exceeded €2.3bn, a small increase of four per cent on the previous quarter but a 32 per cent jump over the first quarter of 2020.
While Illimity has a consumer-facing bank, its key revenue drivers are its SME lending arm and its investment and servicing of distressed credit.
As of 30 June 2021, Illimity had over €1.2bn worth of customer loans under the Distressed Credit Division, up 18 per cent over the same period last year but down by three per cent from the figures reported in March this year.
Earlier this year, the neobank laid out its Strategic Plan, which had a series of short, medium and long-term goals for Illimity to strive towards.
“All the growth drivers included in the Plan are moving in the right direction: the increase in loan and investment activity, the quality of our portfolios, the scale effect that is becoming increasingly visible and the first sizeable contributions coming from the initiatives launched during 2021,” Corrado Passera, CEO and founder of Illimity, said.
“In the quarter just ended and in July we also laid real operating foundations for the development of the initiatives related to the launch of B-ILTY, an innovative digital bank designed for small corporates, and we are finalising activities for the launch of the ‘New HYPE’.”
In September last year, it was revealed that Illimity was to buy a 50 per cent stake in Banca Sella-owned open banking platform HYPE and, by the sounds of it, Illimity is beginning to mobilise the platform.
The part-acquisition, which was completed on 1 January 2021, cost Illimity €140m and has seen the open banking platform grow by a further 40,000 customers since January. Illimity-specific products will go live on HYPE’s platform in the third quarter of this year.
