The banks are facing a scenario of high interest rates in Spain with limited defaults, thanks to a good response from customers who are paying their debts and the transfer of the riskiest loans to non-regulated financial institutions. They sell them at a discount, but in return they get rid of some uncertainty and keep their balance sheet in check.

Last year, €17.7 billion worth of non-performing loans (NPLs) were sold in Spain, according to a report published today by Axis Corporate. The activity has been revived amid rising interest rates.

Of this amount, €8.2 billion was raised by traditional banks. There were two major transactions outside this regulated circuit: the sale of a €6 billion portfolio by the Norwegian multinational specialising in debt collection, Axactor, and the sale of a €2 billion portfolio owned by Blackstone and transferred to Cerberus.

Sareb, Santander and BBVA, among the most active

Within the regulated entities, Sareb – owned by the State through the Frob and several banks – sold NPLs to Axactor for 3 billion, integrated in a portfolio of NPLs called Victoria.

Other portfolio sales were carried out by Deutsche Bank to Cerberus for €1.6 billion and by Santander to several firms in four transactions for €1,707 million.

BBVA made three divestments for €830 million. These were, on the one hand, the Artemis portfolio, transferred to KKR, and, on the other, the Nairobi portfolio, which went to Cerberus and Kruk.

CaixaBank made two transactions valued at €645 million, one with Link and the other with Kruk, to divest a portfolio called Twister. Goldman Sachs sold a 350 million portfolio in Spain to Bank of America.

What is the distressed debt firm, as this type of company dedicated to problem assets is known, that has bought the most doubtful portfolios from banks? It is the US fund Cerberus, which has acquired portfolios valued at €4.51 billion.

Part of the result of all these movements is the low NPL ratio exhibited by Spanish banks. Santander, BBVA and Sabadell report ratios of between 3% and 3.5%, while CaixaBank, which is the most popular among retail customers in Spain, puts it below at 2.7%.

There are two banks in Spain, Ibercaja and Kutxabank, which have managed to bring their NPL ratio below 2%. The former stands at 1.6% and the latter at 1.2%.

Doubtful loans on banks’ balance sheets have fallen in Spain from 3.7% in 2022 to 2.75% in the second quarter of 2023, despite rate hikes and the fact that the unemployment rate is still the highest in Europe.

Original Story: La Vanguardia | Author: Iñaki de las Heras
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

Bankinter is looking to sell several loan packages collectively valued at around €550 million, joining other Spanish banks that are also shedding assets in an effort to lighten their balance sheets in the face of potential financial problems stemming from high interest rates.

Specifically, the Madrid-based bank is seeking buyers for a portfolio of non-performing loans (NPL) with a face value of more than €500 million and two smaller portfolios of NPL, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. The same sources added that Bankinter expects to complete the sale by the third quarter. According to the US agency, a Bankinter spokesman declined to comment on the deal.

Spanish banks are trying to shed billions in loans as higher interest rates threaten to take a toll on the economy and push more people into default. CaixaBank is also in the market with portfolios valued at around €1.1 billion, while BBVA sold a €500 million package last year.

Bankinter’s proposed deals are part of its ‘minimum NPL ratio strategy’ and are ‘a top priority’ this year, according to a marketing document accessed by Bloomberg. The large portfolio Bankinter is trying to sell consists of loans to 50,000 former credit card holders, according to the marketing document.

Bankinter’s consumer finance unit had a total of €4.7 billion in loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter, of which €1 billion was granted through debit and credit cards, according to a presentation to investors.

The second portfolio marketed by Bankinter contains mortgages secured by individuals and small businesses, and the third is made up of mortgages linked to multicurrency loans, some of which carry potential legal issues, according to the document seen by Bloomberg. The two packages have a combined face value of about €40 million.

Bankinter faces claims for its multicurrency loans that could cost it as much as €146 million, according to an estimate in its latest annual report. The bank has also made provisions of €77 million for legal proceedings for ‘usurious interest rates’ through its revolving credit cards and consumer loans.

Original Story: Cinco Dias | Author: Bloomberg
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

Banco Santander has sold one of its most anticipated projects to JP Morgan. This is the Zeta project, which consists of loans to large clients in the hotel sector. The US company will pay around 200 million. The operation was carried out at a discount of one third, as the perimeter of the loans was worth 300 million.

According to El Confidencial, the Spanish group is thus removing the loans granted to hotels from its balance sheet. Although they are now up to date with their payments, they have all been in arrears for more than 90 days. In this way, it avoids future provisions on these loans and the need to deal with defaults.

Santander was advised by EY and A&O Shearman, while JP Morgan was advised by Colliers and Linklaters. Other funds such as Apollo, Starwood and Spanish group SVP also showed interest during the process. Santander’s NPL ratio stood at 3% in March 2024, down 19 basis points from a year earlier. The coverage ratio (provisions to NPLs) was 49.8%.

Santander also overtook BNP as the most capitalised bank in the European Union. This milestone came about because BNP Paribas’ share price on Tuesday discounted the dividend it will pay in the near future. When shares are quoted ex-dividend, there is always a downward adjustment in their value.

Original Story: El Confidencial | Author: Óscar Giménez
Edition and translation: Prime Yield  

CaixaBank SA is exploring the sale of €1.1 billion in non-performing loans (NPL) as it seeks to improve its asset quality

The Spanish lender is marketing two NPL portfolios that have already attracted potential bidders, according to documents seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter. One is code named Oxygen and it has an outstanding balance of €610 million on about 7,000 unpaid mortgages. The other one, dubbed Cobalto, is comprised of about €500 million in unsecured loans to small and medium-sized businesses and consumers, the people said asking not to be named discussing private information.

A spokesperson declined to comment.

CaixaBank, Spain’s third-biggest lender, is taking the step to improve the health of its balance sheet, the people said. The bank has promised investors to keep its NPL ratio — a key metric of asset quality — below 3% this year.

The bank’s NPL ratio rose to 2.81%, or €10.8 billion, at the end of March, marking the second consecutive quarterly gain. The two increases were the first since CaixaBank bought rival Bankia over three years ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The increase partly happened because CaixaBank started applying “stricter criteria for the classification of non-performing loans within the prudential framework, thanks to rigorous and prudent management of credit risk,” it said in its earnings release last week. The metric is still “below the sector average,” it said.

CaixaBank has previously used disposals of NPL portfolios to clean up its balance sheet. Six years ago, it sold a real estate portfolio valued at €7 billion to Lone Star Funds.

Original Story: Yahoo Finance | Author: Bloomberg
Edition: Prime Yield

Spain’s bad bank Sareb (Sociedad de Gestión de Activos procedentes de la Banca), has sold a portfolio of non-performing loans (NPL) without associated mortgage guarantees, valued at €1.5 billion, to the Norwegian fund Axactor, which specialises in this type of operation.

As confirmed to EFE by Sareb sources, who did not disclose the proceeds of this operation, this is the second portfolio that the company has sold to this company, after transferring another one last year valued at €3 billion.

These are loans granted by the former savings banks to property developers, which remained unpaid when these companies went bankrupt and which are difficult to sell because they are not backed by any property or mortgage guarantee.

For this reason, the company has opted to package them in order to facilitate their purchase by this type of fund, which specialises in their recovery.

Sareb, which was created in 2012 to manage and sell the troubled assets of the former savings banks that received public aid, lost €2.198 billion in 2023, 46% more than in the previous year, due to capital losses on the assets sold, i.e. the differences between the book value of the assets and the selling price, and the increase in financial expenses.

However, the company managed to increase its income by 16%, to €2.748 billion, and to repay more than €1 billion euros of its debt, to around €29 billion at the end of 2023.

Original Story: Investing
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

CaixaBank Group posted an attributable net profit of €1.01 billion in the first quarter of 2024, up +17.5% vs. the €855 million registered in the same period of 2023, as it leverages its financial and commercial strength, which has allowed it to continue supporting families and businesses.

The NPL ratio was virtually unchanged in the quarter and below the sector average, at 2.8% (compared to 2.7% in December 2023) after applying stricter criteria for the classification of non-performing loans (NPL) within the prudential framework, thanks to rigorous and prudent management of credit risk. NPL increased slightly to €10.79 billion, with no discernible signs of deterioration in the organic evolution of credit exposures. Provisions for insolvency risk (€7.67 billion) brought the coverage ratio to 71%. Meanwhile, the cost of risk (trailing 12 months) remained low at 0.29%.

CaixaBank Group also has an optimal liquidity position, with €157.02 billion, and the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) stood at 197% as of 31 March, well above the regulatory minimum requirement of 100%.

As for the Group’s capital position, the CET1 capital ratio stood at 12.3% following the impact of the new €500 million share buyback programme that began in March (-22 bps) and which has now been fully deducted. On the other side, the solid organic capital generation in the first quarter stands out (+36 bps).

CaixaBank Group serves 20.1 million customers through a network of over 4,100 branches across Spain and Portugal and has more than €600 billion in assets.

Gonzalo Gortazar, CaixaBank’s CEO, has highlighted that “in the context of a resilient Spanish economy, at CaixaBank, we started 2024 with intense commercial activity and market share gains, while maintaining solid levels of profitability and efficiency”.

The CEO has underscored that “in these first three months of the year, CaixaBank has registered €1.13 billion in taxes, a figure that exceeds the profit obtained in the period. Out of those, €493 million correspond to the banking tax, 32% more than last year”.

Evolution of the income statement
CaixaBank’s income statement for the first quarter of 2024 with growth in all margins, reflects the strength of the bank and its positive business dynamics, with higher loan production and positive net inflows into wealth management products, in a context of interest rate normalisation.
As a result, gross income rose +12.7% year-on-year to €3.5 billion, on the back of higher net interest income (+27.4%), which reflects the impact of new production and the prevailing interest rate backdrop.
Revenues from services (wealth management, protection insurance and banking fees) amounted to €1.2 billion in the first quarter, +1.3% year-on-year following an increase in activity. The growth in revenues from wealth management (+15.8%) and protection insurance (+6.9%) offsets the decrease of banking fees (-10.8%), which were down, among other factors, due to lower account maintenance fees.
As a result, return on equity (ROE) stood at 13.4% at the end of March and the cost-to-income ratio improved once again to reach 40.3%.

Business volumes at an all-time high
Strong activity in the quarter cemented CaixaBank’s status as the leading financial institution in Spain and brought the bank’s business volume close to the one trillion-euro mark, an all-time high, after growing by more than €15 billion in the last year.
Customer funds amounted to €636.49 billion, up €6.16 billion in the quarter (+1%), underpinned by wealth management products.
On-balance sheet resources remained stable in the quarter at €463.51 billion and assets under management totalled €168.69 billion (+4.9% in the quarter), following the solid performance of the markets and significant inflows.
Net inflows into mutual funds, savings insurance and pension plans reached €3.44 billion between January and March, with money market funds being the main growth driver on the funds side. Meanwhile, protection insurance continued to perform well, with premiums growing +8.7% year-on-year.
The performing loan portfolio remained stable in the period at €344.44 billion (+0.1%). Mortgages continue to be affected by repayments, albeit at a slower pace. This factor, together with the growth in new production, allowed the registered decline (-0.7%) in the first quarter to be the smallest in the last five quarters. The consumer loan portfolio was up +2%, while the loans to business portfolio rose by +1.1%.

New loan production picked up during the period
Commercial activity remains buoyant, picking up the pace starting in late 2023 and speeding up into the first quarter of 2024, with significant growth in new loans to individuals. In particular, new mortgage lending amounted to €2.79 billion in the first quarter of 2024, up +24.1% year-on-year, while new consumer lending stood at €3.03 billion, up +15%.
New production in loans to businesses exceeded €10.5 billion through to the end of March, with 43,000 loans granted to SMEs during the quarter (+28% year-on-year).

Spain’s biggest international bank Santander signalled higher profitability this year as growth in lending income, particularly in its home market, helped drive first-quarter earnings higher.

The bank’s revenue rose 10% to a record high 15.38 billion euro, above the 15.06 billion analysts had expected.

The euro zone’s second-biggest bank by market value relied in the past on Latin America for revenue growth, but has recently also benefited from higher European interest rates.

“It has been a very strong start to the year… supported by good growth in net interest income in Europe and the Americas,” Executive Chair Ana Botin said in a statement.

The bank is “well on track” to meet its targets for the year, including a return on tangible equity (ROTE) of 16%, she added.

Chief Financial Officer Jose Garcia Cantera told analysts on call that would imply ending 2024 with a net profit above 12 billion euros.

Including the 335 million euro impact of the Spanish banking levy in Spain, ROTE already stood at 16.2%, compared with 14.9% reported in the quarter.

Net profit jumped to 2.85 billion euros in January to March, just short of the 2.87 billion expect by analysts.

Overall net loan provisions rose 9% while the cost of risk, which measures potential losses, rose 2 basis points to 120 bps.

LENDING BOOST IN SPAIN

At a group level, net interest income (NII) – earnings on loans minus deposit costs – rose 17.7% to 11.98 billion euros, above the 11.5 billion that analysts expected.

Against the previous quarter, NII rose 7.7% as euro zone interest rates remained higher for longer than expected, helping its Spanish business, which has been charging more on loans while keeping a lid on rates paid to savers.

Net profit in Spain rose 66%, while NII was up 24%.

In Brazil, net profit rose almost 20% despite higher provisions as net interest income increased by 25%.

The U.S. and the UK were weak spots, with net profit in the U.S. falling 6.8% due to higher investment costs and NII down 4.7% due to higher funding costs. In the UK net profit fell 22.8%.

Santander’s Tier-1 fully loaded capital ratio, the strictest measure of solvency, rose to 12.28% from 12.26% in the previous quarter.

Original Story: Reuters | Author: Jesus Aguado
Edition: Prime Yield

The volume of doubtful loans in February was €42.248 billion, according to the Bank of Spain. In February last year the rate was 3.55%.

Non-performing loans (NPL) granted by all credit institutions to companies and individuals stood at 3.62% in February, barely one hundredth of a percentage point higher than the 3.61% recorded in January, although higher than the 3.55% recorded a year earlier, according to data published by the Bank of Spain.

The volume of doubtful loans in February was €42.248 billion, a figure that has risen by 144 million (+0.34%) compared to January. Compared with a year earlier, the volume of doubtful loans fell by 0.81%, €347 million less.

At the same time as this increase in doubtful loans, there was no change in the total amount of credit granted. In February, banks registered €1.135 billion in loans, barely one million euros less than in January. Moreover, it is €33,494 billion less than in February 2023.

The data broken down by type of institution show that the doubtful assets ratio of all deposit institutions (banks, savings banks and cooperatives) closed January at 3.52%, up from 3.50% the previous month, and also up from 3.46% a year earlier.

The NPL ratio of financial credit institutions stood at 6.59% in the second month of the year, up from 6.53% in January, and also up from 6.04% a year earlier.

According to data from the Bank of Spain, the provisions of all credit institutions rose to €30.026 billion euros in February, an increase of 96 million euros compared with the previous month.

Original Story: Idealista News
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

Europe’s debt collectors have gone from feast to famine amid a collapse in the number of bank loans turning sour.

Companies that recover unpaid bank debts, and which thrived in the aftermath of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, are rethinking their business models and examining tie-ups with rivals after COVID-19, an energy crisis and two-decade-high interest rates failed to unleash a new wave of loan defaults.

Banks in Europe’s south have largely completed the clean-ups that once fed the bad loan bonanza and pulled in overseas investment firms such as Apollo, opens new tab, Cerberus, PIMCO, Elliott and Lone Star, while government support measures have helped keep companies and households on their feet.

Non-performing loans (NPLs) have held at 1.8% of total bank loans in Europe for six straight quarters, official data show.

In Italy, the continent’s biggest market for bad debts, sales last year totalled 31 billion euros, a third of the 2018 peak. Back then, virtually all disposals came from banks, while more than half of the total in 2023 were re-sales.

Shares in some of the continent’s main players including Sweden’s Intrum, opens new tab – Europe’s biggest debt collector – and Italian leader doValue, opens new tab hit record lows this month as investors weigh whether efforts to restructure their business can work. Both companies declined to comment.

“Several players are undergoing a metamorphosis,” said Francesco Cataldo, a director at consultancy PwC Strategy& in Milan.

Keeping loan managers in activity is important because they can provide a new lease of life to assets – sometimes businesses or properties – that are tied up in insolvency or restructuring procedures, helping economic growth.

Higher debt costs, lower bad loan flows

Many collectors have not only stopped buying new impaired loans now that debt costs make that economically unviable, but are also shedding assets bought in the past.

Intrum, whose shares are down 78% this year, in January sold a nominal 33 billion euro loan portfolio to Cerberus, retaining management of the loans and using the cash to cut its recently downgraded debt. It is working with advisers to improve its debt position.

Similarly, Italy’s Mediobanca (MDBI.MI), opens new tab in October quit the NPL investment business and sold its arm that held a nominal 6.5 billion euros in bad loans.

Intrum’s ‘capital light’ model was embraced last week by Italian state-owned bad loan manager AMCO when it presented a new three-year strategy, saying it would reduce loans under management and cut its financial debt to zero.

“Banks have minimal impaired loan levels and high capital buffers,” AMCO said, pointing to structurally lower new bad loan flows and mounting competition in the sector, where firms must comply with new European Union regulation by mid-2024.

Banks’ healthy loan books also threaten collectors that never invested directly in NPLs, relying instead on contracts with lenders outsourcing debt recovery. As they gradually expire, those multi-year contracts may not be renewed.

Italy’s doValue, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, opens new tab and has a key UniCredit, opens new tab contract ending in 2025, is expected to outline alternative revenue sources.

Its shares have lost 47% this year after it reported a 2023 loss on an impairment it booked on its operations in Spain, where it lost a major contract in 2022.

M&A Revival

In a crowded market, mergers offer an obvious way for debt collectors to reduce competition and increase scale.

But investment bankers say the poor performance of listed bad loan specialists renders valuations unattractive for sellers.

Multiple deals have been explored but failed to go through in recent years, with varied business models making it hard to set price tags that would spur big investment funds to sell the debt servicers they bought in the boom times, the bankers said.

Hopes of an M&A revival are now pinned on fintech group ION’s 1.3 billion euro acquisition of Italian loan manager Prelios from U.S. hedge fund Davidson Kempner.

Valued at around nine times its core profit, Prelios could set a benchmark for future deals, two industry sources said.

ION gained government clearance this month to buy Prelios and now needs central bank approval. It is then expected to merge Prelios with Cerved, another NPL business it bought in 2021.

Original Story: Reuters | Author: Valentina Za
Edition: Prime Yield

Diglo, Santander’s servicer, made a profit of €3m in 2023, more than double that of 2022, when it posted a profit of €1m, according to the bank’s annual report.

In addition, it has launched a technology investment plan for the period 2024-2025 with an amount of more than €4 million.

The aim of the plan, according to sources from the ‘servicer’ explained to Europa Press, is to boost the efficiency of daily internal procedures through automation and the application of artificial intelligence, which will, in turn, result in an improvement in the quality of customer service.

With regard to its activity during 2023, the firm has managed more than 400,000 contracts for debt recovery in the non-performing loan portfolios (NPLs) business and has recorded a 10% increase in the recovery rate on managed stock of NPL compared to 2022.

In addition, the portfolio turnover has been above 30% of published properties, while in the business of managing real estate assets acquired in foreclosure processes (REOs), the servicer has managed nearly 4,000 properties.

Diglo began operating in early 2022 as Santander Group’s real estate servicer under the Deva umbrella, with a total portfolio of more than €5 billion in assets.

Its function is to manage assets acquired in foreclosures (REOs) and non-performing loans (NPLs) of both Santander Group and third parties. In the REOs area, these 4,000 assets of various types (primary residences, holiday homes, logistics assets, residential and offices) spread throughout Spain are grouped together, while in the NPLs business, at the start of its operations, it had around 200,000 contracts under management, 70% of which were SMEs.

This ‘servicer’ is headquartered in Madrid and has ten branches in seven regions: Western and Eastern Andalusia, Catalonia, Central, Levante, Northwest and North, although the network covers the whole of Spain.

Original Story: Bolsamania | Author: Europa Press
Translation and edition: Prime Yield

Santander Consumer Finance, the Santander Group’s subsidiary specialising in consumer finance, posted a net profit of €1.321 billion in 2023, 17.4% less than in 2022, according to the accounts sent by the company to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

The business in Spain and Portugal posted earnings of €806.3 million, almost quadrupling its 2022 result of €206.6 million. Ordinary revenues in this unit increased 65.0% to €1.6 billion.

At the consolidated level, net interest income fell 4.0% to €3.425 billion, affected by the change in the conditions of the TLTRO programme and the rise in interest rates.

In the first half of the year, Santander told Europa Press that the bank was “actively” repricing loans, focusing on the most profitable segments and increasing customer deposits”.

In fact, interest income soared 53.3%, although interest expenses quadrupled to €3.006 billion euros.

Customer loans grew 8.45% to €115.507 billion, while deposits rose 18.1% to  €48.844 billion.

Santander Consumer Finance paid a dividend of €0.32 per share to its parent company, Banco Santander, for a total of €607.4 million and almost 46% of the profit obtained by the finance company in 2023.

Original Story: Capital Madrid | Author: C.M.
Translation and Editions: Prime Yield

Lending starts 2024 with the brakes on. Lending by financial institutions to households fell by 2.4% year on year to €679.183 billion, while the decline in lending to non-financial corporations was somewhat milder at €922.960 billion, 1.4% less than in January 2023. From one period to the next, interest rates in the eurozone have risen by 200 basis points, from 2.5% at the beginning of last year to the 4.5% set by the European Central Bank (ECB) in September, leading to an increase in the cost of financing.

Faced with higher borrowing costs and rising inflation, the granting of loans was reduced by more than €16.361 billion in the case of families and by €12.736 billion in the case of companies. This decline was also observed on a monthly basis, albeit at a more moderate pace. Household borrowing fell by €2.757 billion, 0.4% less than in December, while business borrowing rose by €24 million.

These data were recorded in the midst of the moderation experienced by the twelve-month Euribor, the index to which most mortgages in Spain are referenced, which closed January at 3.609%, its third consecutive monthly fall. In the same month of 2023 it stood at 3.337%. Although far from the highs of 4.1% recorded last summer, the rise in interest rates has caused a slowdown in lending activity in recent months, especially compared to the second half of last year.

The rise in house prices and the use of savings to repay mortgages, which have risen sharply since they were granted free of charge, have caused the outstanding balance of household mortgage loans to continue to fall, to €494.793 billion, down 3%. This is the lowest figure since 2006, when it fell below the €500 billion mark, according to data published by the Bank of Spain. Nevertheless, the amount that families allocate to their homes continues to account for the majority of their debt, at around 73%.

The moderation in the volume of loans earmarked for housing contrasts with consumer financing, which rose by 3.5% to €98.821 billion. At the same time, the balance of bank loans to enterprises fell by 4.4% to €453.641 billion. On the other hand, debt securities remained above 134 billion, while foreign loans rose by 2.2% year-on-year to 335.242 billion.

Original Story: La Información
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

Spanish banks reduced their portfolio of nonperforming loans (NPL) (NPL) by 1.291 billion euros in 2023, although the NPL remained unchanged at 3.54% due to the fall in the total stock of credit, which was 38.208 billion euros, according to data from the Bank of Spain consulted by Europa Press.

Specifically, the NPL ratio was 3.54% in December, three basis points lower than the 3.57% recorded in November. With respect to December 2022 there has been no change. The annual maximum in 2023 was recorded in October (3.60%), while the minimums were in June and July (3.50% in both cases).

Thus, the total stock of doubtful loans was 41.868 billion euros in December, 1.291 billion less than the 43.159 billion in December 2022. Compared with November, the fall was 549 million euros.

On the other hand, during 2023, the total balance of credit granted contracted by 38.208 billion euros at a year-on-year rate, standing at 1.181 trillion euros. Compared with November, the total credit balance decreased by 5.22 billion euros.

The data broken down by type of institution show that the NPL ratio of deposit institutions as a whole (banks, savings banks and cooperatives) closed 2023 at 3.44%, one basis point lower than in November and also than in December 2022. During the year, these institutions reduced their doubtful assets portfolio by 1.508 billion euros, to 38.768 billion euros.

The NPL ratio of financial credit institutions contracted to 6.33% in the last month of the year, up from 6.97% in October and above the 5.93% of a year earlier. In 2023, this type of institution recorded a rise in doubtful assets of 216 million euros, to a total of 2.908 billion.

According to data from the Bank of Spain, provisions for all credit institutions fell to 29.870 billion euros in December, a decrease of 379 million compared with November (1.25%). Compared with a year earlier, they fell by 1.198 million euros (-3.85%).

Original Story: Bolsamania | Author: Europa Press
Translation and edition: Prime Yield

BBVA has announced the sale of a portfolio of unsecured non-performing loans (NPL). This portfolio has an approximate gross value of €500 million. The sale will have a positive impact on the bank’s NPL ratio in Spain.

BBVA reached an agreement to transfer a portfolio of unsecured unpaid loans (known as the ‘Nairobi Project’), with an approximate gross value of €500 million. This operation is part of BBVA’s strategy for value creation and balance sheet management with capital optimization. It will have a positive impact on the bank’s NPL ratio in Spain.

The sale of the portfolio has been divided into two segments. The first segment was sold to the KRUK group. The second has been transferred to a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (‘Cerberus’). GCBE, formerly Gescobro, will manage the portfolio for Cerberus.

Edition: Prime Yield
Original Story: BBVA Press

The large Ibex 35 banks will have €70.978 billion in non-performing loans (NPL) at the end of 2023, 2.3% more than in 2022 and an average NPL ratio of 2.99%, according to the accounts published in recent weeks and consulted by Europa Press.

Thus, the average NPL ratio of the institutions (Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell, Bankinter and Unicaja) is 2.99%, slightly below the NPL ratio compiled by the Bank of Spain, which stood at 3.45% in November. However, it should be noted that the data collected includes the international business of these banks and that the situation varies from one bank to another.

If we also take into account special monitoring loans, the main Spanish banks ended 2023 with a portfolio of problem assets of 241,872,000 loans and advances to customers. €241.872 billion euros, 7.4% more than in 2022.

Original Story: Europa Press
Edition and translation: Prime Yield