Recurrence in revenue, strong lending in emerging economies, deleveraging of the Spanish economy, favorable performance of customer funds, improved liquidity ratios and sound solvency ratios have once again been the most relevant aspects of BBVA Group’s 2013 results.
1. Worth noting in earnings is the positive performance of recurring income, the slowdown in the year-on-year growth of operating expenses, the loan-loss provisions more contained than in 2012, despite the impact of the classification of refinanced loans, and the effect of the corporate operations carried out throughout the year. All this has led to the generation of net attributable profit of €2,228m, which is up 32.9% year-on-year.
2. In business activity, lending has declined in Spain, and has remained flat in Eurasia, in contrast with the growth seen in the rest of geographical areas. However, customer funds have performed very well in all areas, strongly supported by the performance of transactional accounts.
3. The Group’s liquidity and the commercial gap have improved over the year, particularly in the euro balance sheet, whose gap has been reduced by €33 billion over the last twelve months.
4. In terms of solvency, the Group’s ratios are also favorable, with core capital reaching 11.6% at the end of the year, according to Basel II regulations, 81 basis points up on the ratio posted at the end of 2012.
5. From the point of view of risks, performance is in line with expectations, with a slight uptick in the NPA ratio in Spain, as a result of two factors: the impact of the classification of refinanced loans and a fall in the volume of the loan book. In the rest of the areas there has been an improvement in Mexico and the United States, a slight deterioration in Eurasia (due to lower leverage and the negative exchange-rate effect) and stability in South America.
