Lisbon, Aug. 1, 2024 (Lusa) - The five largest banks operating in Portugal recorded aggregate profits of €2.619 billion in the first six months, an increase of 31% on the same period last year.
Thus, the profits of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), Santander, Millennium BCP, Novo Banco and BPI grew by €625.2 million in the first half compared to the same period last year.
The appreciation of net interest income, which refers to the difference between interest charged on loans and interest paid on deposits, continued to contribute to these results and totalled €477 billion in the last six months at these five banks.
In year-on-year terms, this represents an increase of €532.3 million, or 12.%.
In the first six months, CGD was the bank with the highest profits, with €889.3 million, up 46% year-on-year.
This rise in the public bank's profits exceeds the 8.3% change in its net interest income, which totalled €1.425 billion.
Among the private banks, Santander Totta posted the highest profits since the beginning of the year, totalling €547.7 million in net profits.
The bank, led by Pedro Castro e Almeida, saw its profits rise by 64.1% year-on-year, in a year in which net interest income grew by 47.0% to €862.2 million.
Millennium BCP saw its profits rise by 14% to €485.3 million, although its net interest income rose by 1.7% to €1,397.5 million.
On the ‘podium’ of private banks in Portugal, Novo Banco made a profit of €370.3 million, despite a year-on-year drop of 0.8%, and was the only one of the main banks in Portugal to record a decrease in its net profit.
In a period in which it strengthened its provisions, the bank owned by the US fund Lone Star saw its net interest income rise by 13.5% in the first half of the year to €594.9 million.
Finally, BPI's net profit rose by 27.6% to €256.2 million by June. In the period under review and in year-on-year terms, the institution owned by the Spanish group Caixabank's net interest income grew by 12.11%.
Since the European Central Bank (ECB) began raising key interest rates in mid-2022 to combat inflation, this has impacted the increase in bank customers' loans indexed to variable interest rates (mainly Euribor).
This year, in June, the ECB cut its key interest rates by 25 basis points after 10 consecutive increases. At its last meeting on 18 July, the European Central Bank maintained these rates, with its president, Christine Lagarde, stating that future changes will depend on the data available.
JO/ADB // ADB.
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