BPI profits take 66% tumble to September

The Portuguese bank BPI, which is owned by the Spanish CaixaBank, saw its profits fall 66% to €85.5 million to September.

Its liquid profits were €47.4 million for the first half of the year but was a 69% like-for-like fall.
BPI states that despite the fall in profits, largely put down to the Covid-19 pandemic which has hit banks hard across Europe, BPI has a “good third quarter” based on strong commercial activity and liquidity activity, with strengthened capital and liquidity indicators, maintaining high credit quality and a consolidated net profit of €85.5 million.
Between January and September, net profit on the activity in Portugal totalled €47.4 million (-69% yoy). Recovering from the two previous quarters, the 3rd quarter net profit from national activity stood at €40.9 million (-38% yoy).
However, despite a difficult year marked by the pandemic, customer deposits increased €2.27 million in nine months (+9.9% ytd).
Mortgages were up 37% yoy to €1.2 million and the bank attained high market share in new mortgages, 15% from January to August, and a 12.1% share in mortgage portfolio (August).
New corporate loans were up 13% from the same period a year earlier to €3.1 million.
Non-performing loan ratios stood at just 1.9% while NPL coverage increased 138% with Tier 1 of 15.4% and total capital of 17.1%.
The bank put aside €100 million, namely to cover possible losses because of the crisis and the measures adopted by the Government because of Coronavirus.
“We have to be prudent. The coming times are uncertain,” said João Olivera e Costa, CEO of the bank in a press conference to present the results.
In terms of future prospects in the light of the new ‘light’ version of the State of Emergency decreed, the BPI CEO said that these would have a reflected impact on the bank’s results in the third quarter of 2020 but said, “BPI is completely prepared for this confinement”.