Santander has also raised profits in the first quarter of the year, like the rest of the big entities. It earned 2,852 million euros between January and March, 11% more than the same period of the previous year, thanks mainly to another increase in interest income, which reached record levels.
The improvement was accompanied by a 65% increase in profit in Spain, up to 772 million euros. Revenues in the country exceeded 3,000 million, after increasing by 18%, and the improvement in earnings was the largest of all the regions where the entity operates, only behind Portugal.
"We see in Spain a very solid country, with good employment growth and record membership data", indicated the bank's CEO, Héctor Grisi, at the press conference to present the results. Santander has accumulated 31 consecutive months of increases in customer acquisition in the country.
The interest margin of the group as a whole, which measures the difference between loan income and deposit payments, amounted to 11,983 million euros, 18% more than a year earlier. Once commissions were added, which increased by 6%, total income stood at 15.38 billion euros, again a maximum for the bank. Its strategy is to integrate the different platforms into a unique one on an international scale and offer simpler products.
The bank's financial director, José García Cantera, indicated that, in anticipation of lower interest rates, the exercise will go "from more to less, just as 2023 went from less to more". In any case, "the forecast is that margins will grow this year in all quarters".
Regarding the situation in Spain and the environment of economic uncertainty, Grisi considered that this does not harm the activity. "We have not noticed that the political side affects the economy", he indicated.
The CEO insisted on the entity's rejection of the extraordinary banking tax. "If it is expanded, we would be the only country with a special tax", when "the most important thing is economic growth and that there are benefits", he said.
Grisi also made some considerations about housing. The problem, he indicated, "is one of supply". "If there are interesting projects, we finance them", he pointed out, before recalling that there is a deficit of 600,000 homes in the country. "In addition, we see a good behavior of mortgages", he affirmed.
Despite this, the manager did report a sharp decline in the early repayment of mortgages in Spain. According to the bank's calculations, this type of operation has fallen by 30%.
The volume of loans in Spain fell by 1.3% in the first quarter, to 245,231 million euros. However, the CEO stressed that "the market is buoyant, also in the long term".
Like other entities, Santander has achieved in the first quarter the annual cost of the extraordinary tax on banking that was approved by the central government after the war in Ukraine. It applies to the income of banking activity in Spain and amounts to 335 million euros by 2024.
