The Crédito Agrícola group had profits of 95.8 million euros in the first quarter, almost three times the 35.7 million euros of the first three months of 2022, it said today in a press release.
Net interest income (the difference between interest received on loans and interest paid on deposits) doubled to 153.4 million euros, which the bank justifies with “the positive impact of the evolution of Euribor rates on the return on the group’s securities and loan portfolios,” although “partially penalized by the increase in the cost of customer deposits.
Net commissions grew 16.7% to €38.8 million.
Also contributing to the profits were extraordinary results with financial operations, of 6.5 million euros, compared with negative 5.8 million euros in the first quarter of 2022.
On the expense side, structural costs grew 11.9% to 101.6 million euros, with personnel costs advancing 15.3% to 62.7 million euros, which the banking group says was “in part justified by the impact of the wage scale updates made in June 2022 (including retroactive to 2021) and in February 2023 [of 4%, retroactive to January].
The Crédito Agrícola group had 4,117 workers in March, 45 more than in the same month in 2022. There were 617 bank branches, three less.
