How are the accounts of Intesa Sanpaolo, Uncredit and more
Numbers, comparisons and scenarios on the financial statements of Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, Mps, Banco Bpm and Bper
The main Italian banks have something to smile about. Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, Montepaschi, Banco Bpm and Bper closed the first half of the year with improving balance sheets and credit quality, costs that continue the downward trend and productivity still at high levels. The analysis conducted for First CISL by the Scientific Committee of the Fiba Foundation, which examined the accounts of the big five of credit in Italy, put it in black and white.
BUDGETS AND CREDIT QUALITY IMPROVE
Here are the numbers that testify to the good performance of the main banking groups, obviously with the necessary differences. The balance sheets are driven by net interest rates of 11.3 billion (+ 5.7%), to which – explained by the union – the increase in rates contributed, which should unfold its effects especially in the coming quarters. This reverses the trend that had seen revenues benefiting from the constant increase in net commissions which instead remain substantially stable (+ 0.9%) at 10.7 billion due to the adverse performance of the financial markets, which negatively affects the income from investment services.
A plus sign also for the primary margin (+ 3.3%) to 22 billion, for operating revenues (+ 3.3%) to just over 26 billion, for net profits which rose by 6.2%, to over 6.2 billion, also affected by the write-downs of receivables from Russia and Ukraine made by Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit (2.2 billion euros). In addition, in the first six months of the year, loans to customers increased (+ 1.6%) to 1,214 billion and direct deposits from customers (+ 0.4%) to almost 1,500 billion.
Another good news comes from credit quality, which continues to show signs of improvement: in fact, the stock of net non-performing loans is decreasing (-12.8% from 31 December last year to 20.6 billion and the net NPL ratio to 1.7% from 2% six months earlier. Credit adjustments (+ 25.1%), to be related to the war in Ukraine, "could have a lesser impact in subsequent quarters, bringing benefits to profitability".
COSTS CONTINUE TO DECREASE BUT PRODUCTIVITY IS ALWAYS HIGH
While profits and revenues are growing, on the other – and budgets still enjoy it – costs continue to fall. Suffice it to say that in the first six months of the year operating costs decreased by 1.9% to 13.2 billion and of these the cost of personnel by 1.1% to 8.2 billion, with the ratio between costs of personnel and operating income which fell from 33.1% to 31.7%. In this way, a strong reduction in cost / income is obtained, which goes from 53.4% to 50.8%, widening the difference compared to the average of the major European competitors (58.1%). As of June 30th, there were 241,248 employees and 12,311 branches, respectively -3% and -7.6% compared to a year earlier.
To match, as already noted in the past, the growth in productivity: net commissions per employee rose by 4%, the primary margin per employee by 6.5%, the operating result per employee by 12.6%.
THE COLOMBANI SECRETARY: REVENUES AND PROFITS GROW, BANKS INCREASE THE WAGES OF EMPLOYEES
In this context, the First CISL Secretary General, Riccardo Colombani, has no doubts in asking for a redistribution: “The half-yearly reports of the Italian banks have seen revenues and profits grow significantly. The cost of labor has dropped in absolute value and in relative terms, now representing just over 30% of revenues – he notes -. A significant and rapid growth of wages, through bargaining in groups, to adapt them to the high productivity that cannot end only to the benefit of shareholders through the distribution of dividends and buy backs, is not postponed. On the other hand, the protection of the purchasing power of wages will be among the main negotiating topics with ABI in the upcoming contractual round ”.
From the union also some advice to the groups in question: “The increase in the interest margin, destined to also characterize the next quarterly, should push banks to focus more on credit for revenue growth – argues Colombani -. Furthermore, it would be necessary to abandon the previously clearly prevalent business strategy, based on the continuous growth of commissions, in the context of an admittedly non-independent advisory service, and finally practice open advisory models, based on a large number of financial products, in the absence of conflict of interest, without commercial pressure on male and female workers – he concludes – and with the greatest satisfaction of savers ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/come-vanno-i-conti-di-intesa-sanpaolo-uncredit-e-non-solo/ on Mon, 15 Aug 2022 14:05:03 +0000.