Caixabank closed the first quarter of the year with 855 million euros, 21.1% net profit more than in the same period in 2022, despite paying 373 million euros for the extraordinary tax imposed on banks.
In a communication with Spanish stockbroker CNMV, the bank announced this Friday your results from January to March He stated that the tax in question meant “removal of 30% of the group’s profits”.
The bank attributed this quarter’s result to the commercial dynamism and strength of the bank’s balance sheet, which achieved a return on equity or ROTE of 10.5% at the end of March, compared to 7.6% in the first quarter of 2022.
with everything, The entity has clarified that its profitability is still below its cost of capital.
Recurring revenue increased 30%
The amount of interest income reflecting the development of the typical banking business, Reached 2.163 million by March, up 48.6% compared to the first quarter of 2022The gross profit margin, on the other hand, increased by 16.7% to reach 3.101 million, affected by the bank tax.
The bank highlighted basic income, that is, duplicates arising from the core business of the business increased 30.4% to EUR 3,449 million.
Net commissions remained flat (+0.1%) and reached 937 million euros. repetitive types reduced by 1%This is due to factors such as the removal of custody commissions on deposits with large companies and the expansion of loyalty programs for individual customers.
However, these effects are largest activity in payment instruments.
Results of businesses valuated using the equity method, such as bancassurance investments, 79 million addedWhile generating 54.9% more revenue, the insurance service, which just entered the income statement as a result of the implementation of the new accounting regulation, generated 263 million, 23.6% more revenue.
In addition, The bank received more dividends (68 million this quarter compared to one million in the same period in 2022), recording all dividends from Telefónica in the first quarter of the year.
Instead, the bank managed lower income generation number of financial operations: 82 million (-42.7%).
The Bank announced that the extraordinary tax applied to banks had an effect of 373 million on the other income and operating expenses item, and this title was negative with 491 million points.
As a result, gross margin increased by the above 16.7% to €3,101 million, and the increase in recurring administrative and depreciation expenses (+2.4%) drove the operating margin to €1,659 million, up 33.4%. caused. .
Guilt continues at low levels
Regarding late payment, continues at “record lows” despite context inflation and rate increase: 2.7%, level at the end of 2022.
Doubtful balances decreased by 243 million quarter-on-quarter to 10,447 million Euros, following good improvement in asset quality indicators and asset management of default.
Concerning bad debt provisions, it was € 7,921 million at the end of March, with coverage ratio rising to 76% after rising by two percentage points (74%) since December, while cost-to-risk (last 12 months) was 0.26. %, compared to 0.23% in the previous quarter.
Client funds increased 0.5%
As for client funds, it reached €614,608 million at the end of the first quarter and grew 0.5% from the previous quarter, thanks to good development in long-term savings products and recovery in financial markets. bank.
Specifically, assets under management rose 4.1% quarter-on-quarter to €154,007 million due to the better situation in financial markets and net subscriptions of close to 3,800 million.
Regarding healthy credit, At the end of March, it amounted to 351,215 million euros.after remaining practically constant in the quarter.
In terms of segments, the housing purchase portfolio decreased by 1.4%, with the increase in depreciation continuing to be determinant in the context of increasing interest rates, while the balance of consumer loans increased by 0.4% and that of companies increased by 0.4%. it did so by 1.2%.
As a result, new credit generation increased year-on-year across all business lines: mortgage (+ 6%), consumption (+ 4%) and companies (+21%), underlined CaixaBank.
Looking at the capital ratios, the CET1 ratio, which is the highest quality capital, reached 12.6% with the extraordinary effect of the first application of the IFRS 17 accounting standard, which means a 20 basis point decrease.
In terms of liquidity, lThe Bank’s total liquid assets amounted to 132,867 million at the end of the first quarter.
On the other hand, CaixaBank maintained the withdrawn balance of the European Central Bank (ECB) policy at the end of the quarter corresponding to 15,620 million euros, called TLTRO III.
As reflected in their bank accounts, in this first quarter of the year, excluding branches or representative offices outside Spain and Portugal, there were 4,263 branches, 141 fewer than at the end of 2022, but the number of employees is up to 44,654, specifically 29 people.
In a statement, CEO Gonzalo Gortázar emphasized that the organization started the year. “with very good business dynamics at a time when the economy is more resilient than expected”.
Likewise, the bank’s two main shareholders emphasized that its profits return directly to society, as it is the La Caixa Banking Foundation – which owns 32.24% – through Criteria – which finances its social work with the profits of the bank and other investments. and the State (17.3%) receiving the dividends as the second shareholder.