2018 had been a very difficult year for our bank and the Russian banking system in general, resulting in the worst financial performance in our 13-year old history in Russia. Despite a positive Net Operating Income of Rub 13.6 million (37% less than in 2017), we had to form Rub 44.9 million of additional loan loss provisions on our loan portfolio during the year (9% of our loan portfolio as of 31.12.2018).
We had provisioned 100 % reserves on two of our problematic loans totalling Rub 33.5 million, as a result the end of year loss stood at Rub 31.4 million.
Gross Loan portfolio stood at Rub 504.8 million (decrease of 2.5% from end of 2017), stable net interest income and slightly higher operational expenses due to unplanned costs incused due to new reporting system requirements and expenses during receipt of a new base banking license.
We strongly believe we will return to our profitable operation in 2019 and gain back majority of our losses from problematic loans.