Bankinter Portugal with ‘very few’ mortgage renegotiation requests

Bankinter’s NPL ratio in Portugal stood at 1.27% in the first half of the year, and there were “very few” mortgage renegotiation requests, the Spanish banking group’s chief financial officer said today.

“Requests for revision [no âmbito das medidas extraordinárias determinadas pelo Governo para prevenir situações de incumprimento] not very relevant, there are very few of them. Due to our client profile, meeting the minimum requirements means that the potential universe of our portfolio is not very relevant,” said Jacobo Diaz during a press conference in Madrid, which presented the results for the first half of the year, in which the bank’s profit increased by 54. 2% to 417.9 million euros.

In general, the non-performing loan ratio (delays or non-payments on loans by customers) at Bankinter was 2.2% in the first half of the year, the same as for the same period in 2022.

According to Spanish bank president Maria Dolores Dancaus, “there is no clear evidence yet of a corresponding deterioration in asset quality in any of the countries where the group operates, with delays in picking up consumer demand.” credit.

Regarding Bankinter’s “joint venture” with Sonae to create “Portugal’s leading consumer finance operator” by purchasing 50% of Universo from the Portuguese group, the CFO assured that there were no “delays”: “We are working with Sonae’s clients and designing this business and there are no delays at the moment,” he said.

Regarding Bankinter’s operations in Portugal, the president of the Spanish bank highlighted the growth recorded “both in companies and commercial banking” as well as an “impressive” increase in gross profit of 81% and a 184% increase in pre-tax results to 85 million euros. , with operating income reaching a record €100 million, three times higher than in June 2022.

The 7% cost increase was “in line with the business plan” because they are investing.

“It is a complete success to see the beautiful evolution of Portugal in these seven years. [desde que, em 2016, o Bankinter comprou parte da atividade e da rede comercial do Barclays no país]which we are very proud of,” he said.

Commenting on Spain’s emergency banking tax, Maria Dolores Dancausa once again found it “unfair and discriminatory” and dismissed the argument that it was justified given the positive impact of interest rate increases on sector performance.

“Saying that bank results reports have been better this year due to higher interest rates does not seem to me to be an argument for imposing an emergency tax on us, not least because we spent several years with negative interest rates, and this is nobody it didn’t occur to us that we were paying less,” he said.

Reiterating that this is a “poorly planned” tax, the president of Bankinter expressed her hope that “whatever government [das eleições do próximo dia 23 em Espanha]review this emergency tax before the court annuls it.”

Convinced that Bankinter does not have “different strategic scenarios depending on who wins the election”, maintaining a strategy “regardless of the type of government”, Maria Dolores Dankausa stressed that her only desire is for the new chief executive to “take the right solutions”.

“We cannot deny that we have structural weaknesses in the Spanish economy that we cannot survive without correcting them. Debt levels, unemployment (especially among youth) and fiscal pressures cannot continue to rise without restraint. All this can have a negative multiplier effect, which I hope will not happen and appropriate corrective measures will be taken,” he said.

Spanish banking group Bankinter today announced a profit of €417.9 million in the first half of the year, up 54.2% from the same period in 2022, which it said it achieved despite the impact of a payment of 77.5 million euros, earlier this year, of a new temporary tax on the financial sector in Spain.

Before taxes, the total result of Bankinter Group in the first half of the year amounted to 625.2 million euros, which is 67.2% more than in the same period in 2022.

The global loan book reached 74,597 million euros, almost 3% more than in the first half of last year, according to Bankinter, which stressed that there is a “slowdown context” in loans.