Banks rake in €3.6Bn in Portugal

Portugal’s banks raked in €3.6Bn in the first three quarters of 2024.

Profits from State-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) (€1.2Bn) catapulted the results of the country’s five largest banks to another good year of results.

Overall, the bank’s profits were up 21% or +€616 million on the same period in 2023 according to a back-of-the-envelope calculation made by business daily Negócios.

The historic results were partly on the back of continued high interest rates fixed by the European Central Bank (ECB).

CGD’s results alone counted for one-third of total results, while Santander Portugal made €778 million and Novobanco clocked up €610 million in profits.

BCP made €606 million and BPI garnered €380 million.

The banks’ financial margin stood at €6.6Bn to September despite the ECB slashing interest rates three times from 4% to 3.25%.

Overseas operations for the main banks – particularly BCP’s Poland operations, BPI’s and BPI’s Angola and Mozambique subsidiaries were also included in the figures.

The amount of taxes paid by Portugal’s banks skyrocketed by 37.7% to €1.5Bn like-for-like on 2023.

CGD paid €700 million in IRC taxes alone, Santander forked out €392 million, BCP €236 million, BPI €180 million, and Novobanco €37 million – the latter which also posted €845 million in assets from deferred taxes.