The CEO of Bankinter, María Dolores Dancausa, has ruled out that the bank is going to raise the remuneration of deposits despite the fact that the European Central Bank (ECB) has raised interest rates to 2.5%. “We are working to offer our clients other products that may be a better alternative to deposits, such as funds indexed to Spanish public debt or bonds,” she stated. She also reminded the bank that the situation of the large Spanish banks is highly solvent, so they do not “need to capture liquidity”, who added that the deposit offers on the market come from small entities and fintech.
During the press conference after the presentation of the bank’s 2022 results, Dancausa also made reference to the great commercial commitment to attract the bank’s payroll, such as the Payroll Account. Thus, he has explained that “the conditions of the Salary Account have not become obsolete” and has registered that the product offers other services to its clients, with high added value, such as free transfers. For the board, proof of the validity of the offer is that an immediate competitor has launched a very similar product. And, the figures that the bank manages year after year, prove it right: the balance of payroll accounts at the end of 2022 increased to 17,200 million euros, compared to 14,900 million euros last year. In 2016 it was 6,800 million euro .
As for mortgages, the other commercial leg on which a bank’s retail business is based, the entity’s CEO has acknowledged that for this 2023 it expects less growth in mortgages due to the slowdown in the real estate market. In this regard, Dancausa has indicated that during the first half of last year, the rate of growth in the production of new mortgages was very high. Specifically until April, “since we were the first to raise the price of fixed-rate mortgages.” However, the market share of new operations is 6.7%.
Criticism of the special tax on banks
During the presentation of results, Dancausa has once again been very critical of the special tax on banks approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez. “It is an unfair, arbitrary and confiscatory tax. There is also the fact that banks pay many more taxes than other sectors,” said Dancausa, who explained that the financial sector is a very important sector for the country’s economic activity. “Tax and tax issues must put aside emotional issues and must be fair and equal for everyone,” she has asserted. For this year, the entity has paid 225 million in taxes.
The entity has estimated that it will pay between 80 and 100 million euros a year through it, an amount that must be paid in the first 20 days of February and that will be charged against the first quarter, as ‘La Information’ already announced. . Despite the fact that it is a very significant amount, the CEO of Bankinter does not believe that the results of 2023 and 2024 can last because she is confident that the bank will continue to carry out extraordinary activity in the future. Finally, Dancausa has mentioned that the entity’s plans to appeal the tax continue, although she did not want to advance the arguments that supported the bank for it.
During the presentation of results, he also mentioned the mortgage default and the aid for mortgagees that came into effect on January 1. The bank has acknowledged that there is interest in changing from a variable to a fixed rate, but in terms of those with mortgages who have applied for these aids, the figures are still very low due to “the type of customer profile.” In this sense, delinquency is controlled by lower credit than the sector, the type of customer profile, more resistant to changes in the economic cycle and, lastly, by the good role of the bank’s risk professionals.
