NPL&REO News

Credit to construction companies falls by 2.4% in 2021, to €27.2 billion

5 September, 2022

Credit granted to construction companies fell by 2.4% in 2021, following the general trend in business financing, according to the report ‘Evolución del crédito a empresas por sectores de actividad en España 20210, published by AIS Group, a consultancy firm specialising in the application of artificial intelligence solutions to risk management.

The report puts the balance of the credit portfolio in this sector at 27.235 billion euros in 2021, which is up to 660 million euros less than in the previous year, with construction being the sector that has most accelerated the decline in the need for financing.

According to the study, the indebtedness of construction companies is returning to the downward trend that began in 2008 and was only interrupted in 2020 due to the arrival of the coronavirus, when it grew by more than 7%.

As far as defaults are concerned, the trend has also been downward for decades and the pandemic has not reversed it either. Specifically, as of December 2021, the balance of non-performing loans (NPL) granted to construction companies had fallen by around 250 million euros, to just over 2.3 billion euros.

In any case, despite the fact that its portfolio of doubtful loans continues to shrink, construction reaffirmed its position in 2021 as the sector with the highest NPL ratio, at 8.5%. The Bank of Spain has already issued repeated warnings in recent months that institutions should be very vigilant because a considerable increase in NPLs is expected in the short term.

Original Story: Original Story: El Confidencial Digital |Europa Press
Photo: Photo by Svilen Milev in FreeImages
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

Portuguese banks are in no rush to raise interest rates on savers deposits

2 September, 2022

Portugal’s banks are in no rush to raise interest rates on savers’ deposits even though the European Central Bank has done so by 0.5%.

Portugal’s five main banks Santander Totta, CGD, Novobanco, BPI and BPC say that competition will dictate if interests rates on savings will go up or not and not Euribor rates as happens with renumeration of mortgages.

Interest on new mortgages in Portugal have risen since the start of the year, from 0.81% in January 2022 to 1.47% in June; in the Euro area, increases have been taking place since December, from 1.32% to 1.9% for the same period, according to data from the Bank of Portugal.

However, regarding personal deposits, interest only changed in June with the European Central Bank rate increasing from -0.5% to 0%.

Nevertheless, savers continue to put their savings in banks despite there being no incentives. In June, the Portuguese deposited around €180 billion even though they received negligible interest.

Original Story: The Portugal Resident | Portugal
Photo: BPI Facebook
Edition: Prime Yield

Four in five companies are considered insolvent

29 August, 2022

The soaring of business financing recorded in the year’s first half with record new loans amounting to 4.2 billion euros has not kept pace with a parallel increase in worthy businesses. The majority – estimated at 80% – remain without banking credit, and the businesses with access to bank lending, according to all estimates, number approximately 50,000.

They are the target of banks in their effort to increase financing: “Competition among banks for a place in healthy entrepreneurship in the last half-year has spiraled out of all control and has become relentless,” bank executives tell Kathimerini.

It is no coincidence that amid an environment of rising interest rates, the spreads of Greek banks for new loans are decreasing, and despite the rise in the cost of money, banks are competing over who will land the best clients: These are businesses that have healthy fundamentals, can support business plans and initiatives, and stand confidently in front of the bank counter to claim a loan.

Besides those 50,000, there are 200,000 businesses that, due to unfavorable economic data, either avoid borrowing or have their bank loan applications rejected.

“Unfortunately, banks are the only lending channel, and with the presence of fintechs shortly they will be hard put to find new clients,” emphasized Deputy Development Minister Yiannis Tsakiris, stressing the need to expand the pool of creditworthy businesses.

In a presentation of the Hellenic Development Bank’s work and the new financial tools it is planning, Tsakiris defended the need for state intervention with new tools where the banking market “fails,” underlining that the goal “is to increase the perimeter of solvent businesses from 40,000-50,000 today to 80,000 or 100,000,”

“If we succeed, we will have taken an important step in our effort to strengthen entrepreneurship,” he added, locating the problem in the fragmentation of Greek entrepreneurship into very small businesses.

The Bank of Greece estimates that Greek loan portfolios should reach €160-180 billion from €112 billion today, to fulfill banks’ role in the country’s economic growth.

Original Story: Kathimerini | Evgenia Tzortzi
Photo: Photo by Jonte Remos from FreeImages
Edition: Prime Yield

HFSF disinvestment from Greek banks enters in its final countdown

16 August, 2022

HFSF currently controls 40.39% of the shares of National Bank, 27% of Piraeus Bank, 9% of Alpha Bank and 1.4% of Eurobank. In addition, it controls 62.93% of Attica Bank’s shares.

The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) will soon launch the procedures for the selection of a specialist consultant who will undertake the preparation of the fund’s disinvestment strategy from Greece’s lenders. The passing of the new institutional framework for the operation of HFSF, which includes an extension to the fund’s lifetime until the end of 2025, and the appointment of the new Board of Directors paves the way for the utilization of HFSF’s holdings in the banks, with the government pushing for the fastest return of banks to private ownership.

HFSF currently controls 40.39% of the shares of National Bank, 27% of Piraeus Bank, 9% of Alpha Bank and 1.4% of Eurobank. In addition, it controls 62.93% of Attica Bank’s shares. The total current value of the banking shares that HFSF has in its portfolio amounts to 1.69 billion euros, of which 66% is the value of National Bank’s stake

However, despite the government’s desire for the disinvestment to proceed quickly, it seems that this will require a fair bit of time: after the selection of the consultant, they will need sufficient time to study the data and propose strategies, and then HFSF’s management will proceed with the implementation, depending on market conditions. In any case, the disinvestment process should be completed by the end of the fund’s lifetime at the latest, i.e. by the end of 2025, with most of the parties involved, the government, the Bank of Greece and banks wanting this to happen as soon as possible, as the participation of an entity linked to the state in the share capital of commercial banks is seen as being a negative. After all, HFSF had a specific mission from the beginning, the recapitalization of banks and their quick return to private hands. It is no coincidence that in all the capital increases that the banks carried out, they sought to reduce HFSF’s participation. On the other hand, there are some within the HFSF who want the fund to evolve into a special type of investor that will also support the system, just as with Attica Bank. As far as the divestment is concerned, they argue that it should be done gradually and with very careful steps in order to maximize the amount that will be recovered from the share sale. Of course, all this now has a limited effect, as due to successive recapitalizations, HFSF has already lost most of its capital. As reflected in HFSF’s financial data at the end of September 2021, 38 billion euros of its initial funds amounting to 42 billion euros have been lost.

Original Story: Business Daily | Yiannis Papadogiannis
Photo: Photo by Michalis Famelis / Wikimedia Commons
Edition: Prime Yield

Abolishment of the Hercules scheme is premature, states DBRS Morningstar

20 July, 2022

It is premature to abolish an effective tool like the Hercules asset protection scheme, which expires in October 2022, given the challenges posed to Greek systemic banks by the spike in inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canada-based rating agency DBRS Morningstar notes.

“There is continuing uncertainty about the speed and volume of possible future deterioration of assets in the bank balance sheets,” the firm said.

It explained that inflationary pressures, rising energy prices as well as possible supply bottlenecks will put pressure on consumers and businesses.

The length of this price pressure and how it is offset by consumer protection and business support programs will play an important role in setting the trend for new nonperforming loans and their performance, it argued.

Original Story: Ekatemerini | Newsroom
Photo: Photo by Jonte Ramos in FreeImages
Edition: Prime Yield

DoValue launches SME business unit in Spain

20 July, 2022

One of the main operators in Southern Europe in the field of credit and real estate investment management for banks and creditors, the DoValue group has announced its subsidiary Altamira Asset Management has formally set up a business unit dedicated to the management of Non-performing Exposures (NPE) related to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Spain and “that it is significantly investing in its development”.

The SME business unit employs about 40 professionals and is currently managing approximately €3 billion of Gross Book Value (GBV), “a level which is expected to grow over the next few quarters”, the group informs. Whilst the current GBV is mainly composed of Non-performing Loans (NPL), as part of the development of the SME business unit is to further expand also in the Unlikely to Pay (UTP) and Early Arrears segments.

In a press-release, DoValue adds that “the key strengths of the SME business unit are its broad territorial presence (which mirrors the granularity of the SME segment), the fact that it is fully integrated with the doValue Group from a technological and IT systems point of view and that it can leverage on the Group best in class practices already well developed in Italy and in Greece”.

Original Story: Market Screener |PR
Photo: Do Value website
Edition: Prime Yield

Montepio expects losses of up to €100 million from selling Finibanco Angola

20 July, 2022

After the deal with Mário Palhares failed, Banco Montepio has already found a buyer for its Angolan bank, in an operation that could represent losses of up to €100 million.

The Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral (AMMG) bank agreed to sell Finibanco Angola to a Nigerian bank, Access Bank, but the operation is not yet closed, according to information gathered by ECO. The bank headed by Pedro Leitão is still doing its sums for the operation. And they are not exactly the best. It is estimated that the sale could represent losses of between €80 million and €100 million, two sources told ECO.

The impact of the transaction (if it goes ahead) is not insignificant for a financial institution that has posted poor results in recent years (6.6 million in 2021 and 11 million in the first quarter of this year) and where the financial capacity has to be managed carefully.

Officially, the bank makes no comments on this process. ECO knows that there is still no final decision regarding the sale, which may not materialise.

The buyers have already been presented to the National Bank of Angola (BNA), the Angolan banking supervisor, which has to allow the sale. Access Bank, which has been in existence for around 30 years, is headquartered in Lagos, the Nigerian capital and is present in ten other markets, including the United Kingdom, South Africa and Mozambique.

In Lisbon, the Bank of Portugal is also closely monitoring this dossier, which it wants to see resolved so that the next board can focus on the core business of a bank which, after restructuring over the last two years, continues to make its way towards profitability.

Finibanco Angola joined the Montepio group in 2010, when Finibanco was acquired for €250 million

Original Story: ECO News
Photo: Montepio website
Edition: Prime Yield

National Bank of Greece grows profit on higher fee and trading income

13 July, 2022

National Bank (NBG), Greece’s second-largest lender by market value, reported higher net profit in January-to-March compared with last year’s fourth quarter on the back of higher trading and commission income.

NBG, 40% owned by the country’s HFSF bank rescue fund, said net earnings from continued operations reached €208 million from €100 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, beating analyst forecasts.

The bank had earned €583 million in last year’s first quarter.

Provisions for impaired loans dropped 27% year-on-year to €56 million in the first quarter and were slightly down quarter-on-quarter as well.

On the asset quality front, NBG’s stock of so-called non-performing exposures (NPEs) continued to fall. Its NPE ratio dropped to 6.7% of its loan book from 7.0% at the end of December.

Despite uncertainty and inflationary pressures, the payment performance of clients receiving state sponsored support was reassuring, NBG said, with default rates in low single digits.

The bank said there were no signs of delinquencies due to the recent surge in Greek inflation, which hit 10.2% in April, a 28-year high.

“Looking forward, investment growth, a very strong start for the tourism season combined with fiscal support measures in energy cost relief will support Greece’s recovery,” said Chief Executive Paul Mylonas.

The group’s commission income grew 25% year-on-year, supported by increasing retail and corporate loan origination, with card and intermediation fees also driving the upswing.

Original Story: Hellenic Shipping News | Reuters
Photo: Photo by Michalis Famelis in Wikimedia Commons
Edition: Prime Yield

Sabadell seeks a buyer for a €1 billion NPL portfolio

13 July, 2022

Banco Sabadell is looking for a candidate to buy a further portfolio of non-performing loans (NPLs) with a total value of 1,000 million euros, market sources have confirmed to Europa Press.

It would be a portfolio made up of equal parts of failed consumer loans and doubtful loans granted to companies, although it was contracted prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The bank would have put this portfolio up for sale in April, although it would be mid-June when the entity would begin to receive offers for it.

According to ‘El Confidencial’, which has advanced the news, the bank is also reorganising the management of unpaid loans by uniting the areas of recoveries and construction of doubtful portfolios under the same management.

Original Story: Idealista |Europa Press
Photo: Sabadell website
Edition: Prime Yield

Novobanco sells logistic portfolio with a positive impact of €62 million

13 July, 2022

Novobanco has sold a portfolio of logistics assets in Portugal for €208 million and says the deal will have a positive impact of €62 million on this year’s accounts, as well as a 35 basis point improvement in the capital ratio.

Without giving figures on the deal, the bank revealed an agreement for the sale of a real estate portfolio comprising predominantly logistics assets, held by real estate funds NB Património and NB Logística, both managed by GNB Real Estate, and in which the banking institution held, on average, a stake of around 75%.

Later, the Portuguese lender made a new clarification to the market, informing the price of the sale after a competitive bid process and the impact it will have on the bank’s income statement if the transaction is completed. It did not indicate who the buyer would be.

In the previous statement, the bank spoke of the success of the operation, which “reflects the positive moment of the market in this real estate segment, with a significant reduction in yield over the last 12 months and consequent increase in price, given the higher demand for logistics assets post-pandemic.

This deal will give an even bigger boost to Novobanco’s profits, which doubled in the first quarter of the year to €142.7 million.

Since it was sold to the Lone Star fund, the bank has been undergoing deep restructuring and making portfolio sales of troubled and deemed non-core assets. Many of these operations generated million-dollar losses for the bank, forcing the Resolution Fund to inject money (more than €3 billion) into the institution to offset the losses and restore the capital balance.

Original Story: ECO News | News
Photo: Novo Banco website
Edition & Translation: Prime Yield

Alpha Bank records after-tax profits of €125.4 million in Q1

8 July, 2022

Αlpha Bank announced after-tax profits of 125.4 million euros in the first quarter of 2022, with adjusted after-tax profits at €134 million.

Vassilis Psaltis, CEO of the bank, commenting on the first-quarter results, said they confirmed Alpha Bank’s strong dynamism following the completion of a restructuring plan.

He noted that Alpha was on the way to achieving its goals for 2022 and predicted that the NPE ratio will drop into the single digits in the second half of the year.

Psaltis said credit expansion totaled €1 billion, based on new loan disbursements of €2.4 billion in the first three months.

Alpha said commission revenue surpassed €100 million in the first quarter.

Original Story: Ekatemerini | News|
Photo: Alpha Bank website
Edition: Prime Yield

Consumer credit default hits its highest level since 2016

8 July, 2022

Doubtful debts of credit institutions increase and are close to €3 billion. Banks suffer the first increase in defaults in this way.

The possibility of non-performing loans (NPLs) spiralling out of control is one of the biggest threats in the financial sector since the coronavirus began. For now, it is contained in banking, but there is already a path of increase in consumer credit, where the default has reached 7% – the highest level since 2016, according to the latest release from the Bank of Spain.

The report, which covers the period up to March, demonstrates that NPL in credit financial institutions rose by 5.5% monthly, to €2.982 billion, against a total credit stock of €42.096 billion. This is therefore an NPL ratio of 7.08%, up from 6.88% in February, and the highest level since May 2016.

CBEs account for a large part of consumer credit, although not all of it, but the segment’s NPLs figure serves as an approximation of the trend. These establishments are companies with their own legal status that are part of banking groups, or in some cases are independent firms, which are dedicated to granting personal loans.

However, the perimeter of consumer credit is larger. While in the banking sector as a whole it remains contained, with €51.485 billion in doubtful loans and an NPL ratio of 4.24% in March, lower than in February, there has been an upturn in consumer credit. Non-payments increased in December, during the Christmas sales campaign, marred by the omicron. That month it rose from 6.56% to 6.89%, and now it has risen again.

Before the pandemic started, in February 2020, the default rate was 5.81%. Thus, there is an increase of more than one percentage point. You have to go all the way back to May 2016 to find a higher record in the historical series, although it is still far from the historical highs of over 11% in 2014.

These consumer loans are not secured by mortgages or other collateral, and recoveries are more difficult. Banks often bundle defaults into portfolios and sell them to opportunistic funds at discounts of up to 95%. In this sense, there is an appetite for funds to buy this year, after two years with less activity.

Experts were already anticipating that the first upturn in defaults should come in consumer credit. The question is when we will see the increase in companies, and whether it will reach mortgages, for which the economy would have to continue to deteriorate in the midst of a change in the monetary policy cycle with interest rate rises.

The unknown is in the business sector, where there has been an increase in debt with the ICO loans that kept many companies afloat. Some healthy and others that were no longer sustainable and could become zombie companies. Default is almost frozen in companies with the bankruptcy moratorium, which expires on 30 June, but for which it is not yet known whether there will be another extension. The Bank of Spain estimates that 20% of ICO loans are under special surveillance by banks.

Original Story:El Confidencial |Oscar Gimenez
Photo: Photo by Pablo Rodríguez from FreeImages
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

Crédito Agricola’s profits cut for half in Q1

8 July, 2022

The Crédito Agrícola group added a first-quarter profit of €35.7 million, which compares with earnings of €72.5 million in the same period last year.

Crédito Agrícola posted a net profit of €35.7 million in the first quarter of this year, 50.7% less than in the same period last year, the group led by Licínio Pina said in a statement.

Net interest income fell 12.3% to €75.3 million, but the bank’s net commissions rose 23.3% to €33.2 million euros, the financial institution said.

Operating income ultimately fell 27% year-on-year to €132.2 million.

According to Crédito Agrícola, the fall in first quarter profit was influenced by the results, non-recurring, obtained in the first quarter of 2021, related to net gains from financial operations, amounting to €51.3 million, and retroactive interest, relating to 2020, received under the ECB – European Central Bank financing programme.

Included in the result of the Crédito Agrícola group are contributions from the insurance business in the amounts of €2.7 million in the case of CA Vida and €3.4 million via CA Seguros.

In the first quarter the loans and advances to customers portfolio grew 3.5%, to €11.5 billion.

The NPL (non-performing loans) ratio improved from 7.2% at the end of 2021 to 6.7% at the end of March.

“At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Crédito Agrícola Group’s solidity and liquidity levels remain above the recommended minimum levels,” indicates the group, which reports CET1 and total equity ratios of 18.8% (including net income for the 2021 financial year), a leverage ratio of 8.2%, a liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) of 429% and a stable funding ratio (NSFR) of 155.2%.

Original Story: Expresso | Miguel Prado
Photo: Crédito Agricola Website
Edition & Translation: Prime Yield

A new wave of NPL’s on the way

4 July, 2022

After a pile of new nonperforming loans (NPLs) worth almost €5 billion emerged in 2021, Bank of Greece increased its concerns regarding the creation of new generation of bad loans this year after the outbreak of the geopolitical and energy crisis.

Addressing the 4th NPL Summit by ethosEvents, Bank of Greece Deputy Governor Christina Papaconstantinou noted that the first signs show that “we have new flows of NPLs and an increase in arranged debts,” This warning came ahead of the definitive withdrawal of the pandemic support measures for borrowers within 2022.

“This impact cannot be assessed with precision yet, but it does constitute a cause for concern, especially if the geopolitical crisis lasts for long or grows bigger,” she stated, noting that “no complacency is allowed.”

A similar concern emerged at the same conference from the chief executive officer of doValue Greece and president of the association of servicers, Tasos Panousis: He noted that “the crisis is calling on us to act before developments overcome us and we see new defaults.” He then stressed that “the companies managing loans worth €123 billion will have to double their efforts so as not to see the securitization plans derailed.”

The first worrying signs came in 2021, when, despite the overall reduction in the stock of NPLs in banks’ portfolios, new bad loans amounting to €4.2 billion were created, an amount that grows to €5.3 billion when interest is included, according to the central bank.

As the Bank of Greece notes, “during 2021 the loans shifting from performing to nonperforming were greater by €823 million than those moving the opposite way.”

At the same time a significant deterioration has also been recorded in some other key indexes in the industry, such as the index of uncertain collection, which reached 35.5% of all loans at end-2021, up from 29.4% at end-2020, and the index of loans delayed for more than 90 days, which climbed to 31.1% from 23.3% respectively.

Original Story: Ekatemerini | Evgenia Tzortzi
Photo: Photo by Magda S in FreeImages
Edition: Prime Yield

Special surveillance loans grow at 14%

4 July, 2022

The combined weight of NPL accounts for 24% of those granted to the sectors most affected by the pandemic.

The Bank of Spain’s Financial Stability Report confirms that loans under special surveillance have grown by 14% at the end of 2021 compared to 2020. “The ratio of loans under special surveillance continued to increase, particularly in the sectors most affected by the pandemic, where the nonperforming (NPL) loans ratio also increased slightly,” explains the regulator’s spring report.

A credit is classified as NPL when it accumulates defaults of more than three months or for an amount exceeding 25% of the debt. Its predecessor is credit under special surveillance: these are those in which, even though no default event has occurred, a significant increase in credit risk has been observed since the time of granting. According to the Financial Stability Report, the combined weight of NPL and loans under special surveillance accounts for 24% of the credit granted to the sectors most affected by the pandemic, 18% in the moderately affected sectors and 15% in the remaining sectors.

Original Story: Diário Siglo XXI | Press
Photo: Photo by Victor Iglesias in FreeImages
Edition: Prime Yield

NPL from households and NFC fall as credit concession is on the rise

4 July, 2022

According to the latest data from Bank of Portugal, at the end of the 1st quarter of 2022, the balance of the volume of loans granted to non-financial companies (NFCs) was 2.1 billion euros, 98.6 million euros more than at the end of March 2021 and 21.7 million euros more than in December 2021. And, now the Regional Directorate of Statistics (DREM) from Madeira released its analysis of these figures, highlighting them as another indicator of market confidence among consumers.

This is because “the overdue credit ratio for this type of company increased 0.4 percentage points (p.p.) in relation to the end of 2021 at 2.4% at the end of the reference period”, the directorate stresses, but “compared with the same quarter of the previous year, there was a reduction of 1.2 p.p.”,. “On a national level, the overdue loans ratio fell 0.1 p.p. in comparison with the previous quarter and 1.1 p.p. in homologous terms, not exceeding 2.2% at the end of the first quarter of 2022”.

It should be noted that “the amount of non-performing loans (NPL) among non-financial companies, headquartered in the Region [Madeira], stood, in the period in question, at 49.0 million euros (+8.1 million euros than last December and -22.3 million euros compared to March of the previous year)”, which can still be seen as a warning sign to be taken into account.

In the case of debtors in the NFC sector (companies) with overdue loans, at the end of March 2022, the percentage “was 14.4%, and this indicator has remained below the national average (15.0% in the same period) since July 2020,” says the DREM.

“In the sector of households and Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (NPISHs) there was a year-on-year increase of € 62.6 million in the balance of loans granted, bringing it to € 3.2 billion at the end of the 1st quarter of 2022,” it reveals. “When the balance is compared with the previous quarter, there is also an increase of around €35.5 million. If the analysis is more detailed, it can be seen that 67.5% of that balance referred to the housing segment and the remaining 32.5%, to consumption and other purposes”, the document explains.

With regard to non-performing loans (NPL) “in the housing segment, these did not exceed €11.9 million euros, representing a NPL ratio of 0.5%, thus maintaining the historical minimum for the available series, which began in March 2009. This percentage is slightly above the national value (0.4%). Between March 2021 and March 2022, the ratio of overdue housing loans ratio was reduced by 0.3 p.p. in the Region” of Madeira, the DREM guarantees.

To attest to this good wave of banking, “the number of debtors of the institutional sector households and NPISHs grew in relation to the previous quarter to 100.100, and at the end of the 1st quarter of 2022, there were around 44,400 debtors with mortgages and 83,500 with consumer credit and other purposes”, almost double.

Original Story: Diário de Notícias Madeira | Francisco José Cardoso
Photo: Photo by Svilen Milev in FreeImages
Edition & Translation: Prime Yield

Piraeus Bank reported a sixfold jump in first-quarter net earnings

20 June, 2022

Piraeus Bank reported a sixfold jump in first-quarter net earnings from last year’s fourth quarter, boosted by strong trading income.

Greece’s fourth-largest lender by market value reported net profit from continued operations of 521 million euros after a profit of €78 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The bank had lost €404 million in the first quarter of 2021.

Trading income was boosted by one-off gains booked in its sovereign bond portfolio and other transactions, Piraeus Bank said.

Net interest income fell 10% quarter-on-quarter to €286 million, affected by the bank’s accelerated balance sheet bad loan cleanup.

Excluding forgone income from so-called nonperforming exposures (NPEs), net interest income reached €246 million in the first quarter and was up 11% year-on-year, the bank said, supported by an expansion of its performing loan book.

Chief Executive Christos Megalou said he was confident about meeting business plan targets.

Original Story: Ekatemerini | Evgenia Tzortzi
Photo: Piraeus website
Edition: Prime Yield

Caixabank ups profitability target

20 June, 2022

Caixabank raised its key profitability target for 2024 and announced a €1.8 billion share buy-back programme, expecting higher interest rates and economic recovery to boost banking revenue.

As part of a new strategic plan, Spain’s biggest domestic lender by assets said it planned to grow revenue by around 7% between 2022 and 2024, driven by an increase in insurance income and moderate growth in fees and commissions.

Against this backdrop, Caixabank targeted a return on tangible equity ratio (ROTE), a measure of profitability, of above 12% by 2024 from an adjusted 7.2% at the end of 2021.

The lender forecast Spain’s economic growth at an average 3.4% over the three years of the plan, boosting demand for mortgages and consumer loans.

It said that while the war in the Ukraine and its effects on energy prices would slow the pace of recovery in the short term, that would be offset by the return of foreign tourists, the normalisation of saving rates and the roll-out of EU funds.

Spanish banks, with a purely retail model, have been among the hardest hit by ultra low interest rates and are expected to benefit from tighter monetary policy.

Caixabank said it expected the 12-month Euribor rates curve to rise from an average of -0.5% in 2021 to 1.5–1.6% in 2023–24.

Net interest income – earnings on loans minus deposit costs – would rise by 8% in the period, the bank said, while its cost-to-income ratio would fall to below 48% from 58% at end-2021 thanks also to cost savings from its Bankia acquisition.

Higher cost of risk, BPI to grow revenues 9%

The bank plans to generate capital of around €9 billion, including a dividend payout policy of more than 50%, a €1.8 billion share buy-back to be distributed this year, or 7.7% of its outstanding capital, and solvency excess over 12%. The bank has a capital target of 11% to 12%.

Broker Jefferies said that revenue upsides would be partly offset by costs, with the bank targeting costs of 6.3 billion in 2024 versus consensus expectations at €6.0 billion and a step up in provisions.

Caixabank expected cost of risk, which measures the cost of managing credit risks and potential losses for the bank, to be lower than 35 basis points by 2024 from a target of around 25 basis points for this year.

The bank said its Portuguese subsidiary BPI is expected to grow revenues at an annual average rate of around 9%, with profitability and efficiency converging with those of the whole group.

Original Story: Reuters | Jesús Aguado
Photo: Caixa Bank website
Edition: Prime Yield

IMF warns of the risk of banks’ exposure to real estate in Portugal

20 June, 2022

In its annual assessment of Portugal, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers that the risks of rising real estate prices should be “closely monitored”.

The IMF suggests that the Bank of Portugal (BdP) consider a countercyclical capital buffer or a sectoral systemic risk buffer against potential risks from banks’ exposure to real estate and advocates a gradual recomposition of capital levels.

“Once the recovery is well established, the BoP could consider introducing a positively-rated countercyclical capital buffer or a sectoral systemic risk buffer against potential macro-financial risks from banks’ real estate exposures,” the IMF suggests in the conclusions of its annual assessment of Portugal, released on 16 May 2022.

At a press briefing, Rupa Duttagupta, who led the IMF mission to Portugal, pointed out that the banking system has withstood the two double shocks – pandemic and war – “relatively well” so far.

“Capital levels have increased in the past year, non-performing loans (NPL) are down and overall bank profitability is slightly higher. All of this is good news,” he said. However, he warned that “there are some domestic risks that fortunately have not materialised, but they have not disappeared”.

Real estate prices should be “closely monitored

In the conclusions of its assessment of Portugal, the IMF notes that close monitoring of banks’ credit quality remains essential, warning that the impact of the end of moratoria and new risks, including from the property market, on credit quality are likely to remain sources of uncertainty for some time.

“Prudential authorities are actively monitoring the credit quality of banks and confirm that the materialisation of credit risk so far has not been as significant as expected at the start of the pandemic. Strategies to reduce NPLs are bearing fruit, but some banks have not yet completed their adjustment processes,” the findings read.

Even so, Rupa Duttagupta said that Portugal should continue to be “attentive” to the impact of the end of the moratoriums. The IMF considers that the risks of rising property prices, although contained, should also be “closely monitored”. Rupa Duttagupta said that “these risks are not high at the moment, but could increase if house prices continue to rise”.

For the IMF official, in order to avoid these risks, it is necessary to “gradually build buffers” (when, in the capital structure, the regulatory capital maintained is greater than the minimum required by the regulator) of capital where they are smaller, but also to make the banking system more resilient.

“The recomposition of capital buffers should be done gradually and dividend distributions and share repurchases should be cautious until the uncertainties about capital needs, also in light of new economic shocks, are better assessed,” the institution explains.

Original Story: Idealista | Lusa
Photo: Photo by Hugo Humberto Plácido da Silva in FreeImages
Edition & Translation:Prime Yield

Caixabank has sufficient provision to withstand current uncertainty, CEO says

10 May, 2022

Spain’s Caixabank adequate provisions to face potential future losses given the current market uncertainty, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Gonzalo Gortazar said.

“At the end of 2021, the unallocated amount of the pandemic-related provision is more than €1.4 billion, so we are comfortable with the existing cushion to absorb any losses that might happen,” Gortazar told shareholders during the bank’s annual meeting.

Caixabank’s pandemic-related provisions fell by around a fifth in 2021 compared to the previous year, boosting the lender’s recurrent net profit by more than 70%.

The Bank of Spain is monitoring the evolution of state-backed loans granted in the pandemic as repayment freezes are lifted and indirect impacts from the Ukraine war show up in credit portfolios.

The central bank’s Director General for Supervision Mercedes Olano said that she expected an increase in bad loans but that should be manageable as Spanish banks’ exposure to Russia was limited.

Gortazar told investors that Caixabank was confident that credit quality this year would remain at “very adequate” levels.

At the end of December, the bank’s non-performing loans (NPL) accounted for 3.6% of total lending, in line with the previous quarter.

Shareholders are expected to approve a gross cash dividend of 0.1463 euros per share against 2021 earnings, representing a 50% pay-out.

Caixabank aims for a dividend cash pay-out policy of between 50-60% of 2022 consolidated earnings.Investors will also be asked to approve a reduction of the group’s outstanding share capital of up to 10%.

Original story: Reuters | Jesus Aguado
Photo: CaixaBank website
Edition: Prime Yield