The Spanish bank is clear: it will not yet pay interest on deposits

The Spanish banks that presented their quarterly accounts in recent days were very clear: they currently have no intention of paying interest to their customers on the deposits they hold, at least in general, because they do not need to attract more liquidity to their balance sheets.

However, all of them are already benefiting from the increase in the price of money in the eurozone -currently at 3.5%- and not only through revisions of variable mortgages, but also other loans and commissions they charge, which translated into significant increases in income, according to Efe.

Rising interest rates also make buyers find more difficulties in accessing increasingly expensive loans, which will contribute to the increase in liquidity in the system, according to the banks, which are already noticing a decrease in demand, both from the population and from companies.

“Tax” reduced the benefit of the sector

The only thing that clouded the quarterly accounts is an extraordinary and temporary tax established by the Government to tax the income of the sectorwhich reduced profits and which almost everyone has already contested, due to accusations of injustice and accusations of the executive branch of a “confiscating” attitude.

banker the first bank published its data on April 20, which achieved a net profit of 185 million euros, the best quarterly result in its history and 20% higher than the year before, despite the 77 million it had to set aside for taxes.

Chief executive officer, Maria Dolores Dancausaclearly as always, she said that in her opinion the time has not yet come to collect the deposits of her clients and that she will do so until then, as before, depending on everyone’s relationship with the bank.

Then Santander on April 25, it announced a quarterly profit of 2.571 million euros, 1% more, after paying 224 million for an extraordinary tax, without which it would have earned 2.795 million, 10% more.

He was next BBVAon April 27, which achieved a net attributable profit of 1,846 million euros, 39.4% more than a year earlier, thanks to the higher realized income and despite the 225 million that it set aside for the payment of the said fee.

It’s the same day Bank Sabadell announced a quarterly net profit of 205 million euros, 4% less than in the same period in 2022, after it set aside 157 million for the payment of an extraordinary tax to banks.

The only one of these entities that has not yet published its quarterly accounts is CaixaBankwhich will do so next Friday, May 5, but the market consensus forecast is that the benefit could decrease by 4.5% compared to the one achieved a year earlier and remain at 675 million.

Code of good practices

Banks are not currently receiving many requests from customers who are having trouble repaying their loans to take advantage of the recently improved code of practice and review or restructure their debt.

For example, Santander has so far received about 1,400 requests, while Sabadell is processing about 1,000; BBVA reports a “very low” figure and amount, and Bankinter says it received “very little”, given the “high socioeconomic level of its clients”.