The Spanish banking giant Santander released a new record profit in the first half. The establishment notably took advantage of the arrival of new customers, which has compensated for the impact of the drop in interest rates in the euro zone on its margins.
The first Spanish bank, highly established in Europe and Latin America, released 6.83 billion euros in net profits in six months, 13% more than the 6.06 billion of the same period a year ago, according to the results published Wednesday by the group. This result is slightly higher than the expectations of the analysts interviewed by the FOTSET financial information provider, who tapped on average on 6.7 billion net profit.
“This is the best semester in our history,” said the banking group in a statement, which explains this dynamic by the arrival of eight million new customers in one year, bringing its number of customers worldwide to 176 million. These arrivals boosted the deposits (+4%) and the income from the commissions affected by the bank (+3%), which “reached a new historic record of 6.68 billion euros. The loans, for their part, increased by 1%in constant euros.
This dynamic compensated the effects of the drop in interest rates decided by the European Central Bank (ECB) on the bank net product of the bank (equivalent to its turnover), which fell 3%. “In a geopolitical environment that remains volatile, we are on the right track to achieve all our objectives” for 2025, welcomes in the press release Ana Botin, the president of the banking group, which accumulates record profits for several quarters.
The Spanish banking giant specifies that it will launch a new action buyback program, amounting to 1.7 billion euros – a way of increasing the remuneration of shareholders, by reducing the capital of the company. He also says he is optimistic for his financial and commercial prospects, especially on the British market, where he plans to strengthen his position after the acquisition announced in early July of TSB, a subsidiary of his competitor Sabadell, for a total of 3.1 billion euros.
The Spanish group plans to integrate the British bank into its Santander UK subsidiary, which would then become the country’s third bank in terms of current account sales of individuals. This will allow financial synergies of at least 460 million euros, according to Santander.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ATS / AWP / AFP
