The CEO of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Gortázar, was especially critical yesterday of the temporary banking tax that Sumar wants to make permanent. He assured that it is like “shooting yourself in the foot” because it harms competitiveness.
The manager's criticism occurred during the presentation of the results for the first nine months of the year, in which CaixaBank earned 3,659 million euros, 48.2% more than in the same period of 2022. Gortázar insisted that the entity It does not have extraordinary profits and assured that of the 35 Ibex companies it is number 24 in the profitability ranking. “There is discrimination” against certain financial entities with this tax, he said before remembering that unregulated or shadow banking, such as vulture funds or others, is not taxed. The chief executive of CaixaBank said that with measures of this type, unregulated banking can be incentivized. He also recalled that the bank competes in many provinces with small Spanish entities that are exempt from paying the tax. At the international level, he pointed out, they are also in inferior conditions with respect to large French or German banks, since the tax does not exist in those countries.
The improvement in the bank's profits has been achieved in an environment of falling credit. The scenario of rising rates allows CaixaBank – like the rest of the sector – to earn more for the same loans it had already granted. Gortázar, however, indicated that it is not possible to know what part of the increase in the interest margin corresponds directly to the rate increase. This interest margin, which is the result of the purely banking activity of collecting for the money lent and paying for the money deposited by clients, grew by 60.7%, to 7,364 million.
The good evolution of margins compensated for the drop in commission income, which was 5.3%. They fell because the bank stopped charging institutional clients for having money deposited during the years when rates were negative.
The payment of the temporary banking tax of 373 million is already incorporated into the results. Gortázar assured that, together with the 85 million deposit tax and the 1,635 million for corporations, the tax bill paid by the bank is close to 2,100 million, which is equivalent to 36% of the profit.
As has happened to other Spanish entities, the rise in rates has also had the negative effect of reducing the credit portfolio. In the case of CaixaBank, it fell by 1.7% because mortgages fell by 3.9% due to “amortizations and lower production.” This decline has been offset by the better performance of the business and consumer portfolio. Gortázar's forecasts are that the Euribor, which currently exceeds 4%, will begin to decline until it reaches around 3% or 3.2% for a long time.
Likewise, the CEO announced that they are preparing an update of their current strategic plan that will include an upward review of their shareholder remuneration policy.
