Largest Portuguese banks are profitable again, earning 700 million euros
Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), BCP, Santander Totta, BPI and Montepio: all of them profited in 2017. The only one left to present results is Novo Banco, who should present losses.
Five of the largest banks operating in Portugal presented aggregated profits of 714.9 million euros in 2017, contrasting with the losses registered in 2016. Those banks are Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), BCP, Santander Totta, BPI and Montepio. On a daily average, together, those banks made almost two million euros of profit in 2017.
From all of the main banking institutions, Novo Banco’s accounts are the only ones left to be disclosed. It is likely that the bank will present strong losses, considering the 419.2 million euros in losses registered until November (above the 384 million euros losses from the homologous period), which would cause a less positive result for the Portuguese banking’s aggregated profit. The results from the Grupo Crédito Agrícola, which presented a 127 million euros’ profit in the first nine months of 2017, are also left to be known.
As for the five banks which presented their accounts, they were able to achieve 714.9 million euros in accumulated terms, an amount that is comparable to losses higher than 1,200 million euros in 2016. However, by then, the public bank CGD presented the largest losses of its history, of 1,859 million euros, which significantly impacted the results of the sector in 2016. This year, CGD returned to profits, after six years of losses, and registered a positive net result of 51.9 million euros.
And the winners are…
The largest profit, however, belongs to Santander Totta, which was able to get 436.3 million euros in 2017, 10.3% more than in 2016. The bank, held by the Spanish Santander, has been increasing its activity. After having bought, in 2015, part of Banif’s banking activity (during its resolution), it became part of Banco Popular Portugal in the end of 2017, after the Spanish Banco Popular was purchased by Santander, within its resolution process.
The second best result of 2017 belongs to BCP, which presented, this Wednesday, 186.4 million euros of profits, eight times more than the 2016 profit of 23.9 million euros, aided by the economic activity recovery in Portugal and the reduction in provisions and impairments.
Behind on the race are…
As for BPI, held by the Spanish group CaixaBank, had, last year, profits of 10.2 million euros, a significant set back in comparison to the 313.2 million euros from 2016, especially due to impact of its exposure in Angola, where it holds Banco de Fomento de Angola.
Lastly, in 2017, Caixa Económica Montepio Geral was able to reverse the loss tendency it registered for four years (2013 to 2016) and presented 30.1 million euros of profit. This amount is comparable to the 86.5 million euros’ losses in 2016.
