LUSA 08/01/2025

Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Bank BPI profits drop 16% in H1 to €274.5M

Lisbon, July 31, 2025 (Lusa) - BPI’s profits rose 84% in the first half of the year to €274.5 million, reflecting a decrease in net interest income, the bank announced today.

The document presented on Thursday at the bank’s headquarters in Lisbon states that net interest income, which represents the difference between interest earned on loans and interest paid on deposits, declined by 10% to €441.9 million.

Operations in Portugal generated a profit of €241 million, a 10% drop, “reflecting lower interest rates,” according to BPI, which is owned by the Spanish group Caixabank.

Activity in Africa contributed €33 million to BPI’s consolidated results, thanks to a positive contribution of €43 million from Banco de Fomento Angola and an adjustment of €10 million from Mozambique’s BCI, reflecting €29 million in impairments and other adjustments to the stake.

In the first six months of the year, net commissions fell 11% to €150 million, a change that reflects an extraordinary effect last year. Without this figure, the reduction was 1%, clarified the bank’s president, João Pedro Oliveira e Costa.

“We held our rates steady and, in some areas, we became even more aggressive,” he said at the presentation of the results in Lisbon.

At the same presentation, director Susana Trigo Cabral pointed out that the biggest reductions were in commissions on current accounts and immediate transfers, but also “in the placement of securities, which are more occasional and seasonal operations.”

With these changes, banking income fell 8% to €614 million.

The bank’s net interest income, after a period of higher interest rates, fell for the third consecutive quarter, as the bank also adjusted credit with lower index rates than in the previous year.

The average quarterly remuneration decreased in both credit and deposits for the fourth consecutive quarter to 3.7% and 0.8%, respectively, compared to 4.7% and 1.2%.

In terms of the loan portfolio, this increased by 7% compared to a year ago to €32.4 billion, with mortgage loans gaining 10% to €16,193 million.

At the end of May, BPI’s loan portfolio represented 12.0% of the total loan portfolio, down from 12.1% at the end of the year, while the share of housing loans was 17.4% in the first five months of the year.

In corporate lending, the increase was 5%, with an 8% rise in the small and medium-sized enterprise loan portfolio.

Deposits rose 5% in one year to €31.88 billion, reaching a market share of 10.6% in May this year.

Recurring structural costs rose 1% to €253 million, with increases in personnel costs (€126 million) and amortisation (€33 million), and a reduction in general administrative expenses (€93 million).

Overall, this component now excludes the cost of early retirement and voluntary redundancies, which last year amounted to €23 million.

In terms of capital ratios, the CET1 ratio (‘common equity tier 1’) rose to 14.0% and the total capital ratio to 17.4%, compared to 13.9% and 17.3%, respectively, in March.

The gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio remained at 1.7%.

At the end of March, BPI had an accumulated balance of €70 million in unallocated impairments on its balance sheet, equivalent to the figure announced in the previous quarter.

JO/ADB // ADB.

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