BCP made 9,600 credit renegotiations in the first half, 1,885 of which were under the Government’s decree-law, the bank’s president said today at a press conference.
“We renegotiated much more than under the decree-law, because we were concerned to analyze all situations and try to find solutions for all customers,” said BCP’s chairman today at the press conference to present the first half results (profits of 423 million euros), which took place at Taguspark (Oeiras).
As for the interest subsidy, Miguel Maya said that there are 700 more BCP customers benefiting from this measure and that, on average, the subsidy is 37 euros.
The manager also said that this issue is not for the bank to assess.
“It is up to the government to assess [whether the measure] is adjusted or not and to change it,” he said.
This week, in an interview with Público, the Minister of Finance said that the Government will extend the support scheme for the subsidy of housing loans to more families.
Still on the difficulty of families in paying housing loans, in the current context of a sharp increase in interest rates, the executive president of BCP said that, “looking at the whole there is no problem, but looking at each specific case there are problems” and that is where it is necessary to “find solutions that allow the problems to be overcome”.
BCP not talking about possible sale of Polish bank following recovery plan
BCP’s president said today that the bank in Poland is following the recovery plan, refusing to talk about a possible sale, and that he expects plans to pay dividends in 2024 to be fulfilled.
“In our strategic plan, the issue of dividends is very clear. It is normal to pay dividends, that is our intention in 2024 in relation to the 2023 financial year”, said Miguel Maya at the press conference on the first half of the year (profits of €423 million).
This year, shareholders approved the non-payment of dividends for 2022, with the bank’s capital being strengthened, a decision that Maya said was taken by a large majority.
At the beginning of the results presentation, Maya had considered that, with this decision, the shareholders made “a relevant sacrifice” that “benefits the Portuguese economy, in the first place, and the bank’s customers and workers”, as well as the “shareholders themselves who are valuing the bank”.
BCP’s main shareholders are the Chinese group Fosun, with 29.95% of the share capital, and Angola’s Sonangol, with 19.49%. It also has a wide dispersion of shares on the stock exchange.
Regarding the operation in Poland (it holds 50.1% of the Polish Bank Millennium), where BCP has had large losses related to loans granted in the past in Swiss francs, Miguel Maya was asked about a possible sale, saying that he does not know the future, but that the bank is currently focused on its recovery and that this is going as planned.
“The bank has presented a capital recovery plan and it is being executed with great rigor, in a very incisive and correct way. We don’t know the future, what we do know is that we have a very competent team that will know how to consider the best alternatives and that will know how to solve the problems that they are facing, everything else is going into fiction”, said Miguel Maya, when asked if the sale of the operation in Poland is in question.
BCP today reported first-half profits of €423.2 million, almost seven times the €62.2 million recorded in the first six months of 2022.
Also in the first half of the year, the banking group recorded charges of €399.12 million (of which provisions for losses of €331.63 million) related to Swiss franc mortgages in the Polish operation.
On October 3, 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that there were “unfair terms” in loans made in Poland in Swiss francs, including by BCP, admitting the possibility of their annulment under European law.
At issue is an application for annulment made by Polish citizens to the courts in Poland and brought before the CJEU concerning Swiss franc loans they took out in Poland in 2008, including housing loans, which led to household debts increasing when the Swiss franc appreciated against the local currency, the zloty.
In its judgment released on October 3, the CJEU ruled that “in loan agreements concluded in Poland and pegged to a foreign currency, unfair terms relating to the difference in exchange rates cannot be replaced by the general provisions of Polish civil law”.
