At the close of the fourth quarter of 2012, both the loan book and customer deposits in the area show growth rates in line with previous quarters, and even acceleration on the pace of growth in on-balance-sheet customer funds.

Gross customer lending closed December with a balance of €48,721m, a year-on-year growth of 18.6%. The biggest increases have been posted in the retail segment (up 38.6%), thanks to the positive trend in lending to businesses (up 105.8%) and consumer loans and credit cards (up 29.5%).

As regards risk indicators in the area, the NPA ratio has improved to 2.1% as of December 2012 (from 2.3% on the same date of the previous year and 2.2% at the end of September 2012), thanks to the rigorous risk admission and recovery policies applied in the region, in line with corporate guidelines. Coverage has increased from 142% as of 30-Sep-2012 to 146% at the close of the year.

On-balance-sheet customer deposits (excluding repos) have grown 24.1% year-on-year to €56,937m. Lower-cost transactional items (current and savings accounts) rose 30.6%. Customer funds managed by the banks in South America, including mutual funds and repos, stood at €60,566m, up 23.0% on the figure as of 31-Dec-2011.