At the close of September 2012, the loan book in Mexico amounted to €39,719m, a year-on-year growth of 11.5%.

Retail lending continues to be particularly strong, with growth over the same period of 12.6% to €20,831m. Within this portfolio, there was outstanding growth in loans to small businesses, which went up 31.4% year-on-year. Consumer finance was also very strong, with a rise of 18.3%. Residential mortgages growth was stable compared with previous quarters (up 4.2% year-on-year). It is worth noting that during the third quarter, the Mexico area granted the largest number of new mortgage loans year to date.

Lending to Wholesale customers has also continued to grow, with a year-on-year rise of 10.6% to €16,128m. Corporate and public-sector lending performed particularly well, with double-digit growth since the close of 2011. Lending to large corporations has also continued to be boosted through the placement of bonds on the capital markets. In the third quarter, Mexico maintained its leading position in this respect by placing USD 2,631m.

Customer funds (on-balance sheet deposits, repos, mutual funds and investment companies, and pension funds) grew 7.2% year-on-year to €76,314m at the close of September 2012.

Demand deposits (current and savings accounts) grew 6.8%, with a particularly notable increase in customer funds gathered by the commercial network, with a rise of 12.9% on the same date in 2011. Mexico is maintaining its strategy of increasing the profitability of liabilities. Time deposits have fallen by 17.9% year-on-year. They were partly offset by the increase in mutual funds (up 8.6%). As a result of the above, at the close of September, the mix of customer deposits maintained a profitable structure with 78% being low-cost deposits, and the remaining 22% time deposits.