The largest bank by activity in Spain and the first by share of mortgages, Caixa Bankbelieves that measures that bank employers are negotiating with the government to reduce the impact of rising interest rates on mortgages, such as their freezing, should under no circumstances be generally applied, as he proposed vice president Yolanda Díaz.
CaixaBank CEO Gonzalo Gortázar believes it is positive that the entities reach an agreement with the Administration to agree on measures to alleviate the cost of the home loan. “It seems very positive to me to discuss with the Government as associations to define the principles to deal with this situation”, he assured him during the presentation of the half-yearly results of the institution, in which he joined a 17.7% increase in profit in comparable terms.
Of course, Gortázar made it clear that CaixaBank’s position is against the fact that what has been agreed can be applied to relieve mortgages in a massive or generalized way. “Remember what you remember it must be applied on a reduced perimeterto the most vulnerable “, underlined the manager when asked about the CaixaBank proposal within the negotiations in the banking associations. “The opposite would call into question the country’s payment culture”according to the CEO.
The CEO did not want to specify the measures defended by the body itself, believing that this is something that should be discussed within the associations and then agreed with the Government. Regarding the possible initiatives, he also stressed that it will certainly be a battery similar to those that have been applied other times. “The question is more at what time, for whom and for what purpose” they are applied, according to the manager.
For CaixaBank, unlike the previous crisis of the housing bubble, the problem of the rise in mortgage rates will have a lesser impact due to the greater number of fixed-rate mortgages in recent years and the lower volumes of household debt
According to the accounts up to September, its mortgage portfolio stands at 125,771 million euros, of which 27% is fixed-rate. In the case of those signed this year, the percentage rises to 90%. “73% of the mortgage portfolio are mortgages before 2012, most of which were signed at a variable rate”, assured Gortázar, explaining that the impact will be limited.
Impacto TLTRO
Another issue that Gortázar addressed in the presentation of the results was the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to modify the terms of the TLTRO, the entity’s longer-term financing operations with banks. An impact on the accounts that the CEO has minimized, as according to the assurance in his quarterly report, the income from these operations had already been reduced by 30 million.
CaixaBank’s intention after the European supervisor policy change is to return those assets. “Given that many institutions are evaluating it, it is foreseeable that we will proceed to reimburse it, even if we have not yet made a decision”.
