Banking improves in capital and profitability in the third quarter, with delinquencies falling

MADRID Jan. 9 () –

Spanish banks improved their capital ratios in the third quarter of 2024, as well as their profitability, while bad debts were slightly reduced, according to the supervisory statistics published this Thursday by the Bank of Spain.

Specifically, the aggregate CET1 capital ratio of credit institutions operating in Spain stood at 13.34% in the third quarter, above the 13.07% recorded a year earlier. It also implies an improvement of five basis points compared to the immediately previous quarter.

For its part, the total capital ratio of the entities as a whole stood at 17.46%, composed of 17.18% registered in the most significant entities and 22.44% in the smaller financial entities. .

Regarding profitability, the return on tangible capital (RoTE) was 14.09%, which also improved compared to a year before, when it was 12.29%. Compared to the second quarter, the increase was 28 basis points.

In any case, the non-performing loans (NPL) ratio reached 3.05% at the end of the third quarter. Although this figure is slightly higher than the second quarter (two basis points more), it represents a decrease compared to the 3.15% registered in the third quarter of 2023.

On the other hand, the leverage ratio increased to 5.62% in the third quarter of 2024, nine basis points more than the same period of the previous year. The liquidity coverage ratio reached 181.36%, well above the regulatory minimum of 100%.

The supervisor has also reported that the cost of risk stood at 0.87% in the third quarter, compared to 0.90% in the previous quarter and 1% recorded a year earlier. The credit-deposit ratio decreased slightly in the third quarter of 2024 to 96.52% compared to 97.29% in the previous quarter.