Santander earns €3.73 billion with Portugal contributing €385 million

  • ECO News
  • 30 October 2019

An entity led by Ana Botín got a profit of 3.73 billion euros in the first 9 months of the year. In Portugal, the "ordinary benefit" grew 12% to 385 million euros with a reduction in costs.

The Spanish banking group Santander achieved a profit of 3.73 billion euros in the first nine months of the year, a decrease of 35% compared to the same period last year, with the results in Portugal contributing 385 million euros.

In the information that sent this Wednesday morning to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the group explained that the negative impacts of adjustments made to the goodwill in the United Kingdom influenced the overall results and restructuring costs announced.

Santander shows that, in Portugal, the “ordinary benefit” grew 12% to 385 million, with a further reduction in costs.

Loans in the country fell by 1% and market shares in new corporate loans and mortgages remained at around 20%, in a market “still in deleveraging”, with customer funds increasing by 8%.

In the first nine months of the year, the Santander Group achieved total revenues of 36,902 million euros and increased its customer base by almost six million in the last 12 months, with 144 million customers now, “more than any other bank in Europe and the Americas”.

According to the bank, the increase in customers enabled good business growth, with annual increases in credit and customer resources of 4% and 6% in constant euros (excluding the impact of exchange rates).

Credit quality remained “very solid”, with a reduction in the ratio of non-performing loans of 40 basis points in the last 12 months to 3.47%, while the cost of credit remained “stable” at 1%.

The number of digital customers increased by 6.1 million in the last 12 months to 36.2 million, as an investment in technology continued to adopt digital services.

According to the bank, this evolution in digital transformation enabled the efficiency ratio to improve by 50 basis points in the quarter to 46.9%.