Santander Smashes Earnings: Europe’s Banking Behemoth Flexes Profit Muscle

Another quarter, another win for traditional finance—Santander just posted profit growth that’d make a crypto bull blush. The old guard’s still cashing checks while DeFi degens ride the volatility rollercoaster.

Solid? Try predictable. These legacy banks always find ways to pad their balance sheets while paying 0.01% on your savings account. But hey, at least their blockchain ’innovation lab’ made a nice press release this year.

The largest lender in the euro zone by market value reported a record quarterly net profit of 3.4 billion euros ($3.87 billion) for the fourth consecutive quarter, exceeding the 3.16 billion euros predicted in a Reuters survey.

Santander has profited from rising interest rates, but it has an advantage over more Europe-reliant competitors that have reduced their presence in the Americas due to growth in its major Latin American markets. Spain’s retail division had a nearly 40% increase in net profit during the quarter, contributing to a 49% year-over-year increase.
Its Digital Consumer lending division nearly doubled net profits in the U.S., resulting in a 49% increase in net profit.

Additionally, Santander’s geographical diversification and a lessened impact from Spain’s renewed banking tax helped it boost sales by 1% during the quarter.
In the same quarter, the lender recorded a charge of almost 87 million euros against the new banking levy, which is about one-fourth of the expected 350 million euros that will be collected annually.

The Spanish banking giant modified the impact on a linear quarterly basis based on the tax laws now in effect, unlike prior years when the full 335 million euros was booked in the first quarter.

The bank’s net interest income, which is determined by subtracting deposit charges from loan revenues, fell 5% year over year to 11.38 billion euros during the quarter due to Argentina’s hyperinflation accounting. Analysts had projected 11.42 billion euros, but this was a little less.

Mexico’s quarterly net profit fell 4.2%, primarily due to the depreciation of the Mexican peso against the backdrop of geopolitical challenges emanating from U.S. trade restrictions