The great Spanish banks have been presuming a business that is going better than ever. Every time they have presented economic results, they have surpassed the previous ones and highlight, again and again, that they get record figures. Behind that success, the increases of interest rates that the European Central Bank (ECB) launched after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which resulted in an inflationary escalation. These increases, which have ended in 2024, have allowed them to gain weight their profitability, quarter to quarter.
If the data is seen, Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell and Bankinter, won in 2024, together, almost 31.2 billion euros. Three years ago, just before the ECB opted for that rise in types, its joint benefit stood about 16,000 million euros.
The joint profitability of the banks from the pandemic is broken down.
If the data of each of those five great Spanish entities are seen, it is seen how the ones that have raised their profitability in these three years are Sabadell, which has fired it more than 240%, behind Caixabank (with a rise from the rise of 145%), Bankinter (118%), BBVA (114%) and Santander (54%).
It must be remembered that the pandemic hit the entity chaired by Ana Botín, which closed 2020 with red numbers above 8.8 billion euros. Those negative figures have long been history. “Another record year, the third,” boast boasted by presenting the results of 2024 to the media.
The following graph shows how the result of each of these Spanish entities has been evolving from the pandemic.
As for the tax, the large entities have paid, together, in these two years, a total of 2,445 million euros. Broken, between 2023 and 2024, that tax has assumed Caixabank a total of 866 million euros; to Santander, 559 million; to BBVA, 500 million; to Sabadell, 348 million euros; Ya Bankinter, 172 million euros, according to the data that entities have been publishing throughout the last weeks. A tax that banks appealed to the National Court, as they have indicated that the new tax formulation will resort, approved by the Congress of Deputies at the end of November.
Complaints for the tax
“The bank tax was raised in Spain as a temporary tax, but we have appealed, even if it is temporary,” he justified in a interview The president of the Spanish Banking Association, Alejandra Kindelán. “It seems to us that it is based on two fallacies. We always say that it is true that bank profitability levels are being normalized because interest rates are being normalized, ”he said. “The extraordinary was the decade of zero or negative interest rates that we have seen in Europe. It is normal to have positive interest rates. It is true that the change has been very drastic and that this is being noticed on the margins, but it is also true that we are in a very uncertain environment in which there is an economic slowdown that will affect the activity of the banks. And that is already being noticed. ”
In recent days, the five great banks have broken down the data on their business and criticism of their taxation have been majority. “We have the responsibility of paying taxes,” said the president of Santander, Ana Botín on Wednesday, “but we want a right system where everyone pays the same and not penalizing a sector over others,” he said.
A few months ago, in Washingtonthe president of Santander already loaded against the tax promoted by the coalition executive. “We need governments to understand that if you want to pay for the European model, we need companies to earn money. We have said it publicly. Why should we have a bank tax on income as in Spain? That goes directly against growth, and will not help our common goal to help people do better. ”
That argument, that affects the business and commercial activity, Caixabank also points out. “It seems to us that [el impuesto] It does not fit into the legal system and our obligation is to resort to it. [Lo hicimos] In the past and we will continue doing it. We will pay, but we will resort to it, ”said Caixabank CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar.
“The tax does not accompany the need for business financing. It is more attractive to give money to an SME in France than in Spain, ”criticized the executive of the entity participated by the State. Gortázar criticized that the tax “has not gone through the State Council report” and organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the ECB have “explained the problems generated by the tax and we should have a serene debate, beyond that or not with the legal scheme, ”he said.
Also, there are particular issues. For example, BBVA is immersed in its purchase offer by Banco Sabadell and it is proposed to delay the fusion of the two banks – if their OPA triumphs – to dodge the progressivity of the new tax. It must be remembered that the redefinition of the tax sets a progressivity, between 1% and 7%, depending on the liquidable base of each entity. “It is something that we will have to analyze in his time,” the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, acknowledged to the media. “Nor is it that the merger occurs on day one. It requires planning ”, so, once the OPA is completed and if it comes out according to the interests of BBVA, they will spend“ many months until the merger is carried out. The tax could influence the calendar “so BBVA can” plan when to do the operation to minimize the damage given the progressive scale of the tax, “he summarized.
Meanwhile, Sabadell points out BBVA’s doubts about taxation as one of the arguments against OPA. “That scenario, delay total integration so as not to have to pay the tax, I think they will have to clarify why they say that the synergies are the same with or without merger. I don’t understand anything, it seems like a mess. When you buy a competitor, you destroy value because there are customers who leave, you have to meet some ‘remedies’ [las condiciones que puede imponer la Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia]you throw between 40% or 50% [de la plantilla]. If that advantage does not exist, it does not make much sense, ”said Sabadell’s CEO, César González-Bueno. This entity can benefit from the progressivity of the tax. “It seems to me that we are marginally less discriminated against. We are still one of us who pay the most with respect to the benefit. Before it was more disproportionate, now less disproportionate, ”he assumed.
The margins endure
The five great Spanish entities, apart from those criticisms of the tax, closed 2024 with record figures for benefit, despite the fact that almost half of the year has been marked by the end of the Austerity policy of the ECB, which began to cut the Interest rates last June with the intention of injecting oxygen into the eurozone economy.
Despite this change in the organism strategy chaired by Christine Lagarde, the main banks have maintained the stability of what they call customer margin, which basically collects what they enter thanks to the commercialization of mortgages and what they pay their customers in form of remuneration of your deposits.
The following graph shows how those margins of the five great banks have evolved since 2021, before the ECB began the increase in interest rates, and until the end of 2024.
The margins are triggered after the rise of types
Difference (margin) between what Enter the credits (%)on average, every bank every year and What pays for deposits
Source: Entities Results Reports
An example, CaixaBank, in 2021, when the Euribor was in a historical minimum, charged, on average, 1.61% and paid 0% for deposits. In 2023, it charged 4.47% for the credits and paid 0.89% for those savings products. And in 2024, collecting half a year of reduction of types, average 4.27% for these credits and 0.96% for the deposits.
In the case of Santander, at the end of 2024, those same percentages were 4.31% and 1%. “The Spanish banks is very competitive,” Ana Botín argued by breaking down the entity’s data. “The important thing is at what price we give the mortgages, also the deposits. We are giving mortgages, on average, cheaper than we lend to the State. That is the best indicator, it is true that the remuneration of deposits is not the same as in other markets, ”he acknowledged.
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