CECA Entities Achieve a Profit of €1.766 Billion by June
The entities associated with CECA have collectively achieved an attributed profit of €1.766 billion in the first half of 2021, compared to €762 million in the previous year. This performance, which occurs in a context of economic recovery following the severe impact of the pandemic, does not account for the extraordinary result derived from the CaixaBank-Bankia merger, which would elevate the figure to €4.669 billion.
On the revenue side, the interest margin has decreased by 1.3% due to the impact of the decline in Euribor on mortgage credit, as well as changes in the portfolio structure, with a greater weight of ICO loans and lower income from consumer loans and fixed income.
The commercial reactivation has allowed a rebound in commissions (7.4%), as well as results from affiliated companies (65.6%) and income from dividends (44.7%). However, this improvement does not fully offset the decline in the interest margin, ROF, and operating profit, which in the previous year recorded non-recurring income.
On the expenditure side, the efforts of containment and restructuring undertaken by the entities have allowed for a slight reduction in operating costs, excluding the extraordinary costs associated with the aforementioned merger.
The decrease in impairment losses in the first half (by €1.460 billion less than in the first half of 2020) has led to an improvement in results and raised the return on equity (ROE) to 6%, compared to 1.4% the previous year.
Despite the economic context, credit doubtfulness remains contained, standing at 3.8% in June, which represents a decrease of 0.23 percentage points compared to the same month of the previous year.
In addition, the Sector’s entities have strengthened their solvency by reaching an average CET1 ratio of 13.9% in June 2021, a 0.21 percentage point improvement compared to the ratio reported in June 2020, comfortably exceeding the minimum capital requirements mandated by the European Central Bank (ECB).
