Santander profits up 21.4%

Santander Portugal has posted a growth in profits of 21.4% to March 2023 to €180 million.

The bank admits that it has seen less depositors while new mortgages are at the their lowest level since the start of 2020.
“The increases in interest rates are already being felt when it comes to loans, with new mortgage applications falling to their lowest levels since the start of 2020, both for mortgage and company loans”, the bank states in its results which were released on Tuesday.
The bank also notes that families and companies are “beginning to pay off their loans earlier because the cost of servicing the loans is increasing, particularly for the variable rate options, in line with the increase in interest rates”.
At the end of March, Santander had a total of €39.3Bn loaned out to companies and families, down 2.1% on the first quarter of 2022 and 1.9% than at the end of last year.
Santander has also felt the impact of lower deposits that fell 5.1% to €41.1Bn. The bank has admitted that “families and companies are beginning to use their savings to pay down their loans”, and that there is a “diversification in deposits”, with investments in Portuguese national savings bonds “which offer better rates of return than bank deposits”.
An increase in revenues by 11.8% contributed towards the improved profits, to €405 million. There was a lower increase in expenses (5.2%) to €132 million. In the first quarter of the year Santander had 377 branches in operation, down 1.6% on the last quarter of 2022.
At the end of March, the bank had 4,957 staff in Portugal, down 1% on the first quarter of 2022, but up 0.1% on the final quarter of 2022.
At the end of March Santander had 2.9 million clients, down 100,000 on the same period in 2022.

Photo: Cimpor