On 11 March, 2026, the Board of Directors of MeDirect Bank approved the Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2025.
New ownership and leadership
MeDirect Bank announced the successful completion of the acquisition of MDB Group Limited by Banka CREDITAS a.s. (“Banka CREDITAS”) in September 2025, following regulatory approval granted by the European Central Bank in August 2025.
Banka CREDITAS is part of the privately-owned CREDITAS Group, a diversified investment group active in financial services, real estate and energy. As a fellow challenger bank, Banka CREDITAS brings a strategically aligned and financially strong controlling/shareholder to the Group.
Banka CREDITAS a.s. has also invested €40 million of new capital invested to date, with a firm commitment of additional investment in 2026. This provides the Group with the financial resources to accelerate its existing growth strategy across its core markets.
Jean-Claude Maher was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Arnaud Denis effective 31 January, 2025. Mr Maher brings over 30 years of banking experience, including senior roles at Deutsche Bank AG across corporate, transaction, and private banking.
Maher said, “Through the acquisition by Banka CREDITAS, MeDirect has gained a financially strong and strategically aligned controlling shareholder, one with the same challenger bank DNA and a shared commitment to customer centricity and innovation.”
Client franchise and business growth
The Group delivered solid growth across its core markets of Malta and Belgium during 2025:
In Belgium, the investing client base grew 34% to 50,000; overall client growth of 12.5%.
In Malta, the corporate banking franchise expanded to over 650 business clients, supported by a comprehensive suite of tailored lending and banking solutions.
In The Netherlands, the Board resolved to discontinue Retail & Wealth activities following a strategic review. Approximately 60% of the more than 3,700 clients invited, migrated to the Group’s Malta platform. Dutch NHG and Buy-to-Let businesses are unaffected.
MeDirect’s cutting-edge digital platform
Throughout 2025, MeDirect continued to invest meaningfully in its digital banking platform, executing a focused programme of enhancements across its Wealth Management and e-Banking businesses. These investments were designed to deliver tangible benefits for clients, strengthen the Bank’s operational foundations, and support long-term growth.
The programme was shaped by four clear priorities:
- Broadening the product offering – expanding capabilities across both banking and wealth verticals to better serve the evolving needs of retail and corporate clients, and to deepen existing client relationships.
- Modernising core technology – accelerating the internalisation of key infrastructure, including the migration of mutual fund execution to internal service, the rollout of a new pricing engine, and the enhancement of the Bank’s proprietary Payments Hub. These steps reduce the cost of service delivery, strengthen data ownership, and improve security and fraud prevention.
- Strengthening governance and resilience – reinforcing the Bank’s risk, compliance, and data governance capabilities in response to a more demanding regulatory environment and an evolving geopolitical landscape.
- Advancing platform security – continually advancing the Bank’s security architecture and fraud prevention capabilities to protect clients and the platform.
Financial performance
The Group recorded a reported loss before tax of €6.1 million (2024: €5.0 million), reflecting three deliberate, non-recurring factors:
Substantially completed exit from the Institutional Credit Lending (ICL) asset class, with the net portfolio reduced by 90% to €21.5 million. This removed the Group’s historically highest-margin but non-core portfolio.
The 2025 reported loss was a deliberate outcome of front-loaded restructuring, balance sheet de-risking, and absorption of non-recurring charges. The Group is firmly positioned for a return to sustainable profitability.
Leverage ratio constraints ahead of the September 2025 acquisition completion, which moderated balance sheet growth and revenue generation for much of the year.
Restructuring, reorganisation, and post-acquisition balance sheet review one-off charges of €4.0 million, fully absorbed in 2025.
Excluding one-off items, the Group delivered an underlying net operating profit of €0.8 million:
Operating income decreased by €8.9 million, the key driver of which was the accelerated exit from the ICL asset class, which accounted for approximately €10.3 million of the year-on-year decline
On an underlying basis and excluding the ICL wind-down, operating income grew €1.2 million (1.3%) year-on-year, driven by growth in mortgage lending, Maltese business banking, and wealth management fees (up 10.3% to €7.9 million).
The operating costs increase of €4.7 million was primarily driven by €4.2 million of incremental, non-discretionary regulatory charges (Depositor Compensation Schemes and supervisory fees); excluding these levies, the cost base was broadly flat.
Expected credit losses (“ECLs”) amounted to a €2.9 million net charge (2024: €19.3 million net charge), predominantly attributable to the unwinding of credit provisions held against the ICL portfolio.
Balance sheet position, capital and liquidity
Total assets grew 5.2% to €5.34 billion at 31 December 2025. Net loans and advances to customers increased 3.3% to €3.0 billion; excluding the ICL run-down, underlying lending balances grew 10.4%. Notable developments include:
Dutch government-guaranteed NHG mortgages remain the Group’s largest single asset class, representing 38% of total assets
Dutch Buy-to-Let mortgage portfolio reached €248.3 million (+43%).
Volume of Belgian residential mortgage receivables surpassed €500 million (+48%).
Maltese mortgage portfolio grew 17%; business lending portfolio grew 35.6%.
Customer deposits increased 6.7% to €4.1 billion.
The NPL ratio improved materially from 2.2% to 0.9%, reflecting the completion of the Group’s de-risking strategy.
All capital and liquidity ratios of MDB Group exceeded applicable regulatory minimums:
Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) stood at 196% (2024: 183%), and the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) at 133% (2024: 122%), both reflecting the Group’s prudent approach to liquidity risk management and its sound structural funding profile.
MeDirect’s Tier 1 capital ratio was 20.8% as at 31 December 2025 (2024: 16.4%), with a total capital ratio of 23.5% (2024: 19.8%). requirements, Pillar 2 recommendations, and internal management buffer thresholds.
The leverage ratio increased to 4.8% at year-end 2025 (2024: 4.4%), reflecting both additional capital invested by the shareholder and the Group’s continued balance sheet discipline.
ESG and social responsibility
MeDirect continued to embed Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) principles across its operations and to foster ESG awareness throughout the organisation. MeDirect received a Gold Medal from EcoVadis in 2025, placing the Group in the top 5% of companies rated globally.
The Group completed a Double Materiality Assessment, identifying key topics to underpin its ESG strategy. MeDirect became a signatory to the Malta Diversity and Inclusion Charter and employs staff from over 30 nationalities. Offices in Malta and Belgium hold LEED and CWaPE environmental certifications, respectively.
Outlook
With the support of Banka CREDITAS and a committed team across Malta and Belgium, the Board enters 2026 with confidence.
The 2025 reported loss was a deliberate outcome of front-loaded restructuring, balance sheet de-risking, and absorption of non-recurring charges. The Group is firmly positioned for a return to sustainable profitability.
Strategic priorities for 2026 and beyond include: growing client franchises in Malta and Belgium, deepening digital banking and wealth management offerings, strengthening the Malta corporate banking franchise, and generating stable returns for all stakeholders.
Maher concluded, “In 2025, MeDirect successfully navigated a period of significant transition, emerging stronger, better capitalised and more strategically focused. Looking ahead, the Group’s strategic priorities are to grow its business in Malta and Belgium, to deepen client relationships through an increasingly seamless and comprehensive digital offering, to extend the reach of its wealth management platform, to broaden and strengthen its business banking franchise in Malta, and to generate stable and consistent returns for the benefit of all stakeholders.
“With the support of Banka CREDITAS and a talented and committed team across Malta and Belgium, MeDirect enters 2026 with confidence in the Group’s strategy, in its platform and in its people.”
