BCP injects €90 million into digital bank ActivoBank to accelerate growth
ActivoBank more than doubled its loan portfolio last year and profits accelerated by 25%. The digital bank gives BCP reason to smile, with the latter expected to announce profits of €1 billion.
BCP injected €90 million into ActivoBank, with the aim of supporting the “strong growth” of its digital bank’s activity. ActivoBank saw its loan portfolio more than double last year, with profits accelerating by 25%. In the coming years, it will be one of the growth drivers of the financial institution led by Miguel Maya.
This operation represents the largest injection since ActivoBank was founded 20 years ago, having now practically doubled its capital. With this reinforcement, carried out last October, ActivoBank now has a capital of around €220 million.
An official source at BCP, which owns 100% of ActivoBank, explained to ECO that the capital boost, underwritten by the parent company, served “to keep pace with the strong growth in activity” of the digital bank and to enable it to comply with regulatory ratios.
By September, ActivoBank had recorded profits of €34.2 million, up 25.5% on the same period last year.
In terms of the balance sheet, financial assets at amortised cost (mostly corresponding to loans granted) amounted to €3.88 billion in September, up 160% compared to the same period last year. Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost (corresponding to deposits) rose 20% to €4.6 billion.
Digital bank on the rise
The bank led by Miguel Maya has big ambitions for the digital bank founded in 2006. Its goals for the coming years even exceed those of BCP. By 2028, ActivoBank aims to exceed 700,000 active customers, pointing to 75% growth compared to its current 400,000 customers – more than BCP itself expects to attract in the same period, between 150,000 and 200,000 new customers.
More customers will mean more business. The digital bank expects to grow its customer resources by more than 60% during this period and also increase its credit portfolio by more than 70%, including personal and mortgage loans, according to the strategic plan announced in October 2024.
ActivoBank’s accumulated results in this new cycle are expected to exceed 170 million euros. This amount will correspond to about 4% of what BCP expects to generate in all geographies, not only Portugal but also Poland and Mozambique, totalling between four billion and five billion euros.
About ten years ago, when BCP was undergoing a period of restructuring, ActivoBank was close to being sold to the British fund Cabot Square, but the negotiations ultimately fell through.
BCP then saw ActivoBank as a platform to attract younger customers who are more adept at using new technologies. It even talked about “internationalisation potential”, an idea that is no longer part of the current strategic plan. On the other hand, it has also sought to shed its ‘low-cost bank’ image.
BCP with profits of €1 billion in 2025
Miguel Maya is preparing to announce the results for 2025 on Wednesday. Analysts anticipate profits in the region of €1 billion: €994.8 million is the average of analysts in a Reuters pool. This would correspond to a 9.75% year-on-year increase, despite the fact that falling interest rates are penalising the sector’s results.
BCP’s results for the first nine months already pointed to some resistance to the normalisation of rates, with the bank announcing profits of €775.9 million up to September, up 8.7% year-on-year. The margin rose by 2.6% to €2.166 billion.
