CGD posts historic €608M profit

Portuguese State-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos posted a historic profit of €608 million for the first half of 2023, up 25% than the same period last year, thanks to a strong increase (127.7%) in its financial margin on the back of high interest rates.

The CEO of CGD, Paulo Macedo pointed out on Friday that despite the difficulties that many families with mortgages were facing in Portugal because of higher interest rates, the situation was also different from past crises since house prices have gained in value too, meaning that those who chose to sell their homes were making higher profits.
The bank’s results were 25% higher than the like-for-like period in 2022 “reflecting a consolidation of results over the past few years and the current situation of increased interest rates”.
“The increase in house prices has helped to mitigate mortgage credit defaults with houses on average being worth more than the loan. We know that some families have difficulties, but unlike pervious crises they have been able to sell their houses to the bank and earn some money in the process”, said the CEO of Portugal’s largest bank.
“We have not had the keys from any house handed to the bank because of higher interest rates. Some properties that were reclaimed by the bank were to do with court decisions before the pandemic of which there were 12”, said Paulo Macedo.
Without surprises, the company’s best performance in the results were down to revenues from interest rates where CGD coined in an extra €738 million (+127%) on the consolidated financial margin to make a total of €1.316Bn.
Revenues from private non corporate clients were up €270 million while corporate and other client revenues were up €148 million.

Photo: Lusa: Miguel A. Lopes.