Spain 
Italy 
Greece 
Santander Totta Sold €1 Billion Worth of NPLs in 2018
4 February 2019
The bank posted a 14.6% increase in profits compared profits of 436 million euros in 2017, according to financial statements published Monday.
Santander Totta sold €1 billion worth of bad debts last year and about 600 million euros of real estate, the bank announced Monday during a press conference.
The CFO, Manuel Preto, said sales of non-performing loans (NPLs) had “virtually zero impact on the [bank’s] profit and loss account,” which he considered to mean that the loans were already well provisioned in the accounts of the bank owned by the Spanish group Santander.
The CEO, Pedro Castro e Almeida, said that the bank would continue to make an effort to reduce its exposure to NPLs this year (the ratio is currently 4%) to be better prepared for any new crises, though he expects no significant portfolio sales this year.
Queried by the press, the executives indicated that the loans were related to past operations conducted by Santander Totta itself, in addition to Banif and Popular, which the bank had previously taken over. In 2018, Santander Totta also sold about 600 million euros worth of real estate, the great majority of which stemmed from the bank’s acquisition of Banco Popular Portugal.
On January 29, the Bank of Portugal reported that total lending to banks and households fell 1.94% in December to 194,602 million euros from the same month of the year before, stating that the fall was “largely due to sales of loan portfolios,” by the banks.
Santander Totta’s profits rose by 14.6% to 500 million euros in 2018
The financial institution posted profits of 500 million euros in 2018, compared to 436 million euros in 2017, an increase of 14.6% over the previous year, said Pedro Castro e Almeida, who considered the results to be “very good.”
Santander Totta carried out its acquisition of Banco Popular Portugal in 2018, after the liquidation of Banco Popular in Spain. The bank had already acquired part of Banif’s banking operations in 2015.
The bank ended the year 2018 with 289 fewer employees and 147 fewer branches than in 2017, according to data released at the press conference. At the end of 2018, the bank had 6,492 employees and 523 branches, according to the chief executive of Santander Totta.
By the end of 2017, the bank had 6,781 employees and 670 bank branches (including the former Popular), according to data provided by the bank to the Lusa news agency.
Original Story: Observador / Lusa
Photo: Miguel A. Lopes / Lusa
Translation: Richard Turner