RIPE’s 2023 annual report: Declining accounts, fiscal instability

RIPE’s 2023 annual report: Declining accounts, fiscal instability is profiled by BTW Media because published evidence links it to internet infrastructure, governance, operational dependencies, or market visibility.

• RIPE releases its RIPE NCC Annual Report 2023 and Financial Report 2023, providing a comprehensive view of its activities throughout last year.
• With a focus on fiscal responsibility, RIPE’s expenditure in 2023 totaled 37.3 million euros out of a 40-million-euro budget, reflecting strategic financial management amidst operational optimisations.
• RIPE navigates financial obstacles, projecting a budgetary balance in 2024 while anticipating a decline in LIR accounts and addressing the impact of inflation and geopolitical tensions.

Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE) has released the RIPE NCC Annual Report 2023 alongside the RIPE NCC Financial Report 2023, which offers a comprehensive overview of its financial activities and undertakings.

RIPE’s digital reports

Available solely in digital format, these reports are essential references for the upcoming RIPE NCC General Meeting, scheduled from May 22 to May 24.

These reports provide factual insights into RIPE’s operational activities and financial performance, presenting concrete data and analyses.

Also read: What is the RIPE NCC?

Membership dynamics

In 2023, RIPE’s expenditure amounted to only 37.3 million euros out of a budget of 40 million euros.

According to RIPE, the organisation implemented a restructuring of its technical departments, resulting in the optimisation of internal processes and enhanced response times.

RIPE reports a total of 20,077 active members, with a decrease of 154 members.

RIPE includes 21,568 active Local Internet Registries (LIRs) as of December 31, 2023, which primarily allocate address space to their network service users.

Beginning the year with 23,383 LIR accounts, RIPE closed a total of 2,780 LIR accounts and welcomed 967 new ones.

Among these members, 15,281 have been allocated IPv6 addresses. The allocation of IPv4 addresses experienced a slight decline from 208,128 addresses in 2022 to 192,256 addresses in 2023.

RIPE’s satisfaction ratings have remained relatively stable since 2019, maintaining a 92% satisfaction rate.

Also read: RIPE will increase membership fees by up to 22% in 2025

Financial challenges

RIPE faces hurdles in implementing significant cost-cutting measures, citing ongoing conflicts, inflation, and the unstable financial environment across its service region, which spans countries in Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia.

The capital expenditure ratio of RIPE dropped from 93% to 88% due to the impact of high inflation and COVID-19 restrictions. Looking forward to 2024, the RIPE NCC has outlined an income budget of 38 million euros and a total expense budget of 38.2 million euros.

Furthermore, RIPE expects a further decline of 1,000 LIR accounts in the coming period.