Novo Banco revealed this Thursday to the market that it made a profit of 560.8 million euros in 2022, triple what it recorded in the previous year. The variation compared to 184.5 million 2021 is 204%.
on one announcement sent to the Securities Market Commission, the financial institution attributes the result to the execution of a strategy with “a focus on sustained business growth” and a “solid generation of revenue and capital”, despite the “current macroeconomic uncertainty”.
The bank’s financial margin was 625.5 million euros, 9.1% more than in the comparable year (52.1 million euros more), a performance that, says the bank, “is in line with expectations for the year 2022 and with the current macroeconomic context of generalized rise in interest rates, with the asset and liability management strategy to mitigate the effects of inflationary pressure”.
The difference, he says, reflects the “improvement in the average rate on assets”, which more than offset “the cost incurred with senior debt issues and the change in financing interest rates” of the extended financing operations launched by the Central Bank European Union (ECB).
In the economic framework of the report, the financial entity recalls that, in 2022, the ECB “raised the reference interest rate by an accumulated total of 250 basis points, leaving the rate on main refinancing operations at 2.5% and the rate on the facility deposits at 2%”, references that today are already higher.
“With positive results in all quarters, it is worth mentioning in this last quarter the improvement in the financial margin (59.2% more) and commissions (8.9% more), as well as the containment of operating costs (excluding items of a exceptional plus 2.4%; plus 9.7 million euros) at a level similar to that of previous quarters, allowing to mitigate the effects of inflationary pressures on this aggregate”, indicates the institution led by Mark Bourke.
In relation to the year 2022 as a whole, Novo Banco reveals that the “commercial banking product totaled 918.8 million euros” in 2022, an increase of 7.3% in 2021, which includes 183.6 million referring to “ process of deleveraging the real estate portfolio, which includes the sale of the current headquarters building”, in Lisbon.
Commissions on customer services totaled 293.3 million euros, “with emphasis on the performance of the management of means of payment, loans and guarantees in line with the improvement of the bank’s activity”.
The bank indicates to the market that net credit to customers increased to 24.6 billion euros, “confirming the growth trajectory of the credit portfolio both in the retail segment and in companies, in an environment of more favorable rates”. As a result, “total customer funds grew by 3.1% compared to December 2021, with an increase in customer deposits of 4%”, plus 1.1 billion euros.
Regarding non-performing loans (known as NPL), the ratio dropped to 4.3%, compared to 5.7% at the end of 2021.