Profil:
Santander Bank Polska SASantander BP lender assumes low cost of risk and faster-than-market credit growth in '25
Listed lender Santander BP, the unit of Spanish Banco Santander, estimates that in 2025 the cost of credit risk will be at the lower end of the 70-90 basis points range, but does not rule out that it could also be below 70 basis points. The bank wants to continue to profitably grow in loans faster than the market, with almost all of its current mortgage sales at a periodically fixed rate, bank representatives told a conference.
In its 2024-2026 strategy published a year ago, the bank planned for the cost of credit risk to be in the 70-90 bps range. In 2024, the cost of credit risk ratio fell to 58 bp.
"We are in a good phase of the economic cycle, there was a recovery in the economy in 2024, and we expect a continuation in 2025. All indications are that we should trend around the lower end of that range," Maciej Reluga, management board member, said.
"For 2025, we have a similar view on the cost of risk as in 2024 - that is, we should be at the bottom of the range, and perhaps even - if there are favourable circumstances - below it," he added.
Receivables from customers amounted to PLN 180.3 billion (EUR 42.7 bln) at the end of 2024, up 9.2 percent year on year, of which the portfolio of loans to individuals grew by 6.9 percent and receivables from businesses and the public sector by 11.1 percent.
Reluga said that in 2025, the bank expects corporate lending activity to accelerate across the banking sector.
The bank's management board member Maciej Reluga said that in the fourth quarter 2024, almost 97 percent of mortgage sales were based on a periodically fixed rate. The total share of periodically fixed rate loans in the total portfolio increased to almost 42 percent at the end of December 2024.
Sales of cash loans for the whole of 2024 amounted to PLN 11.4 billion (EUR 2.7 bln) and mortgages to PLN 11.2 billion (EUR 2.7 bln). The bank reported that it was a record year in terms of cash loan and mortgage sales.
He reported that at the end of 2024, the bank had reached 13,000 settlements on CHF loans, with settlements offered to around 98 percent of active customers.
Reluga stated that there is a slight growth in court actions on challenging WIBOR, all court judgments favour the bank and most of them have become final.
seb/ nl/