LISBON (Reuters) -Portugal’s largest listed bank, Millennium bcp on Wednesday posted an 8.7% rise in nine-month profit, boosted by its Polish unit Bank Millennium and solid domestic operations, despite pressure from lower ECB rates.
It booked a consolidated net profit of 776 million euros ($905 million), while net income of its half-owned Polish subsidiary soared 56% to 202 million euros as charges related to its Swiss franc mortgage loan portfolio decreased.
Chief Executive Miguel Maya said the international environment over the past 9 months “was more complex than the bank had anticipated and marked by uncertainty” regarding the economic impact of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“But despite this, the bank has been showing quite favourable evolution, quarter after quarter,” he told a news conference, citing 14.6% return on equity and “a very good balance sheet quality”.
Consolidated net interest income (NII), a measure of earnings on loans minus deposit costs, rose 2.6% to 2.17 billion euros, while fees and commissions increased 4% to 629 million euros, the Portuguese bank said in a statement.
BCP, which also has banking operations in Mozambique and Angola, reduced total non-performing exposure by 17.2% to 1.6 billion euros as of September from a year earlier.
It said its cost of risk, which measures the cost of managing credit risks and potential losses for the bank, dropped to 31 basis points in September from 38 points a year ago.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip)
