CaixaBank expects interest rates to reach 1.5% in 2024


CaixaBank anticipates that the European Central Bank (ECB) will begin to raise interest rates in July or September of this year and that the successive upward price revisions of money place the rate at 1.5% in 2024, According to the CEO of the entity, Gonzalo Gortázar, during the presentation of the bank’s results for the first quarter of the year in Valencia. In his opinion, the ECB will make three increases this year of a quarter on each occasion, until raising the intervention rate to 0.25%, from the current minus 0.5%, and that next year it will proceed to another five, with which the aforementioned 1.5% would be reached. In his opinion, this gradual rise is “healthy.” Likewise, he expressed his confidence that inflation will be controlled and it will not be necessary to exceed the aforementioned percentage.

CaixaBank obtained an attributable profit of 707 million euros in the first quarter of the year, 21.9% more. The entity will present its strategic plan for the next three years in May and calculates that each one-point increase in rates will improve its one-year interest margin by up to 25%, which until March has been negative by 5.4 points. Gortázar highlighted the uncertainties generated by the war in Ukraine and revealed in this regard that the financial institution has made a forecast of 214 million in view of the impact that the conflict may have on your balance. Depending on how the war evolves, the entity will assess whether it is necessary to make a greater effort. However, he specified that from the covid fund of 1,395 million created at the beginning of the pandemic, 199 million have been released due to the improvement in the situation compared to the forecast, which is why both phenomena only entail a ‘loss’ of 15 million.

credits

The bank’s credit reached 340,699 million in volume at the end of March, with a rise of only 0.2%, including the 0.8% decrease in mortgages due to loan repayments. However, new production has been notable, with increases of 22% in SMEs, 18% in consumption and 14% in housing, which only in March grew by 58%. Thus, its purpose is to approach the 25% that mortgages represent in the bank’s credit portfolio as a whole, although Gortázar added that it is still early to know the real evolution, given that it is necessary to see in the coming months how they affect the rate hikes and how banks react to prices and products. What is clear is that “the mortgages fixed will be more expensive and the variables, too, due to the rise in the Euribor”which has already entered positive territory.

Related news

The CEO of CaixaBank, who stated that he prefers “not to be pessimistic” in the face of the complicated international scenario, specified in this regard that, despite the lower growth anticipated yesterday by the Government -4.3% for GDP, in line with 4 .2% calculated by the bank-, the financial institution’s perception of the consumption dynamics of its customers is positive. This is what he has observed through the use of the cards, especially among foreign tourists, which augurs, in his opinion, that tourism is reborn and that it can become a compensating factor for other negative effects of the war on the economy. Spanish: “Customer behavior is not impacted by the war, but positively by the end of the pandemic.”

The bank invests this year 50 million in improving care for the elderly

In another order of things, Gonzalo Gortázar ruled out that the entity has in mind to apply new layoffs in this 2022 and recalled that there is still 10% left, both in staff and in branches, to complete the internal adjustment caused by the absorption of Bankia last year. In some way, he also asked the clientele for time to apply the measures that the entity has announced to improve care for older and less digitized people, all of them as a result of the campaign started by a Valencian retiree. The bank is going to invest 50 million euros in this task this year. He also stressed that the impact of ICO credits to fight covid is being less “than expected”, although he added that we have to wait until July, when the bulk of the principal returns take place, because now 55% cases only interest is paid.


Leave a Comment