In a press conference in Lisbon, the bank's chairman, João Pedro Oliveira e Costa, attributed this increase to the increase in the financial margin, which refers to the difference between the interest charged on loans and the interest paid on deposits, which grew by 19% to 245 million euros.

In the operation in Portugal alone, the bank's profits grew by 52% to 112 million euros, driven by the growth in commercial banking products (up 16% to 329 million euros).

In other geographies, the contribution was around nine million euros, all from the Mozambican BCI, while Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) did not make any contribution to BPI's consolidated net results.

In terms of the loan portfolio, it increased by 3% in the first three months of the year to 30.1 billion euros.

In total, the loan portfolio increased by around 900 million euros year-on-year. Housing loans increased by 2% to 14.6 billion euros, resulting from 216 thousand contracts.

As of March, BPI had 600 housing loans with fixed installments under government legislation, which were worth a total of 89 million euros. In turn, the interest subsidy covered 5,500 loans, totaling 553 million euros.

At the end of February, BPI's loan portfolio represented 14.4% of the total loan portfolio, remaining the same as at the end of the year, while the share of housing contracts was 16.2% in the accumulated total of the first two months of the year.

In the period under analysis, net commissions increased by 1% year-on-year to 74 million euros.

Deposits increased by 1.3 billion euros year-on-year, around 4%, to 29.7 billion euros, representing 77% of assets and constituting the bank's main source of funding.

In terms of capital ratios, the CET1 ('common equity tier 1') ratio fell in chain to 13.7%, the 'tier 1' to 15.1% and the total capital to 17.4%.

Recurring structural costs remained at 125 million euros, with personnel costs increasing by 2%, general administrative expenses by 1%, while depreciation decreased by 9%.

In the 12 months ended in March, the cost-to-income ratio reached 38%. João Pedro Oliveira e Costa estimated that this indicator will increase, in the medium term, to between 40% and 45%, anticipating a reduction in income and a stabilization of costs.

The non-performing exposures (NPE) ratio was 1.6% and the non-performing loans ratio was 2.0%.

At the end of March, BPI had an accumulated balance on the balance sheet of 28.4 million euros in unallocated impairments.

At the end of the period under analysis, BPI had 4,275 employees, 12 more than at the end of 2023 and 111 less year-on-year, and 316 business units.

[News updated at 1:03 pm]

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