2023-07-20 11:49:58
The presentation of the results of the bank will coincide in the calendar with the last days of the electoral campaign for July 23 and the hangover of the results of the general elections next week. The first entity to open fire was Bankinter, whose CEO, María Dolores Dancausa, dedicated a good part of her speech to the measures that the new government could take, especially pointing to the extraordinary tax on banks: “I hope it will be reconsidered and repealed,” the executive indicated at the press conference.
Dancausa, one of the bankers that has shown the most public opposition to the tax on the financial sector imposed by the coalition government since January 1, even rules out a remodeling of the tax, as it is prepared. The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has indicated that “you can talk” with the sector to assess its future. However, the CEO of Bankinter has pointed out that “compromises are not worth it, but it must be withdrawn.” Dancausa has recognized that this opinion “may sound radical, but it is what I think.”
Bankinter’s requirement regarding the tax, which has involved a disbursement of 77 million euros, comes after the bank has registered a profit of 418 million in the first half of the year, which implies 54% more than in the same period of the previous year. In fact, the entity has earned in six months almost the same as in all of 2022, as the bank has recognized. And a good part of this result is due to the increase in interest rates, “although not all”, the executive has qualified. However, Dancausa defends that “although the bank’s income statements are more satisfactory, it is not an argument for imposing a special tax on us” and recalled that when rates were negative “nobody asked for less tax to be paid.”
The CEO has also referred to some of the proposals put on the table in recent weeks, such as the possible legal obligation for the bank to remunerate deposits with a minimum, as raised at the beginning of July by the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño. “In an electoral campaign, everything is forgiven and understood, but forcing us to remunerate deposits falls within the scope of the competence of each company and is not done at the dictates of the authorities.”
Dancausa has also asked the future Executive to “get it right” in its economic policies. “There is no better policy than the one that supports entrepreneurship for the creation and maintenance of employment”, he has indicated. “This will allow companies and citizens to find a safe environment to promote new projects that will get the Spanish economy to achieve new levels of well-being,” he stated.
Bankinter’s accounts have been strengthened by the continuous rise in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB) in the last year, which have allowed the entity to trigger all indicators of typical banking business, despite the general stagnation in the production of new credit. Bankinter registered a gross margin of 1,278 million, which is 33% more. It was favored above all by the higher income in the interest margin, up to 1,068 million (+60%), while income from commissions remained unchanged at 303 million.
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