Spain's Bankinter said today its second-quarter net profit fell 0.4% from the same period in 2024 as a decline in lending income offset a rise in fees and overall loans.
The country's fifth-biggest bank by market value reported a net profit of €272m in the April to June period, still above the €258m expected by analysts polled by Reuters.
Spanish banks are mainly retail lenders and have benefited from higher costs of loans. However, this tailwind has reversed as interest rates have been falling.
In this context, the bank's net interest income (NII), earnings on loans minus deposit costs, fell 4% year-on-year in the quarter to €560m, which still beat the €548m forecast by analysts.
Against the previous quarter, NII rose 4%, helped by strong commercial activity.
Bankinter now also operates in the Irish market and uses its subsidiary Avant Money as an Irish digitial bank here. It said Bankinter Ireland's pre-tax profit amounted to €21m, up 2%, as it continues to grow.
It said its loans and receivables were up 20% to reach €4 billion at the end of June, of which €3 billion were mortgages and the rest were consumer loans.
