By Jesús Aguado
MADRID (Reuters) -Bankinter on Thursday trimmed its forecast slightly for financial margins in 2025 after third-quarter lending income remained under pressure, hit by lower interest rates.
Spanish banks are mainly retail lenders and have benefited from higher costs of loans tied mostly to variable rates. But reductions in European Central Bank interest rates are squeezing margins.
Bankinter’s CFO, Jacobo Diaz, told analysts the bank expected “a slight slippage in our flattish NII guidance in 2025” to be compensated by a stronger fee growth.
Spain’s fifth largest bank by market value is now forecasting a slight miss compared with its previously flattish guidance for financial margins in 2025.
At 0913 GMT, shares in Bankinter fell 4.5%, while Spain’s blue-chip index Ibex-35 was almost unchanged. The bank’s shares had risen 68% year-to-date.
Analysts at broker Jefferies highlighted “small misses on revenues, such as trading income and net interest income (NII), and costs.”
Bankinter’s NII, or earnings on loans minus deposit costs, fell 0.4% year-on-year in the quarter to 566 million euros, below analysts’ forecasts of 570 million euros. Compared with the previous quarter, NII rose 1%, signalling a lending income recovery.
In this context, Bankinter’s CFO expected a more moderate phase of retail repricing at lower rates mostly in the fourth quarter, with a much lower impact in early 2026.
He also expected a more modest reduction of between 5 to 10 basis points in deposit costs in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter.
In the quarter, Bankinter’s customer spreads, the difference between the interest a bank pays on customer deposits and the interest it charges on customer loans, fell to 2.65% from 2.73%, as yields on loans declined by 22 basis points, while deposit costs fell 14 bps.
Net profit rose 5% to 270 million euros, above the 267 million euros expected by analysts, boosted by a 10% increase in fees and a 5.8% year-on-year rise in loans in a solid domestic environment.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by David Latona and Jane Merriman)
