Caixabank sees surge in profits

 

CaixaBank, formed as the retail arm of Spanish banking giant La Caixa earlier in July, posted first-half net profits of 833 million euros, an 11% increase from comparable figures.

In Q2 of 2011, the bank posted profits of 533 million euros : a jump of 57%.

Net interest income (the difference between interest paid out on deposits and interest earned on lending) stood at 742 million euros for Q2, down 17% on 2010.

Over the six-month period, it also dropped 17% to 1.543 billion euros.

La Caixa, the biggest savings bank operation in Spain with over 28,000 employees and 5,300 branches, converted its entire retail banking operation into CaixaBank, which was listed on the stock market at the start of this month.

"The new banking entity is the tenth largest bank by market capitalisation in the euro zone and was born with a core capital of 11.3%, shares of 273.387 billion euros, 10.5 million customers," the chairman of CaixaBank, Isidro Faine, said in a statement.

Two other regional savings banks, Bankia and Banca Civia, followed CaixaBank by making their debuts on the stock market this week.