Adequate management of the banking business contributed to the growth of the commercial activity. As of 30-Sep-2011, the loan-book, excluding the old mortgage portfolio, posted a year-on-year growth of 8.0%. It’s worth mentioning that lending to corporate clients has been slowed by a more comfortable liquidity position in companies and the public sector, which led to an increase in early prepayment of bank loans. If this effect is excluded, gross loans and advances to customers were up 14.2% in the last 12 months.
The growth of loans in the retail segment has been outstanding. The consumer portfolio, including credit cards, presented 23.4% year-on-year growth and reached €7,296m. The solid performance of car, personal and payroll loans has been especially important; together, they grew 23.0% compared to September 2010. Lending to SMEs and micro-businesses has likewise been very favorable, up 16.8% year-on-year. The balance of mortgage lending, excluding the old mortgage portfolio, reached €7,870m at the close of September 2011, a 6.4% increase compared to the same date the previous year. BBVA Bancomer maintains its leadership position and continues to innovate with programs such as “Hipoteca Selecta”, jointly created with INFONAVIT (Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers) for private sector employees who are offered preferential funding conditions.
Customer funds, including bank deposits, repos, mutual funds and investment companies, grew by 13.1% year-on-year to €52,075m. It also continues to maintain a profitable mix. Demand deposits, which are lower-cost, represent 41.8% of the total and increased at a year-on-year rate of 15.1%, while time deposits increased 11.7% in the same period. In the third quarter, “Meta Ahorro” was launched; this product, with an attractive yield, allows customers to choose both the amount of their investments and the period of time they wish to keep them. In off-balance-sheet funds, the assets under management by investment companies continued their positive trend and presented a year-on-year growth of 12.1% to €14,559m.
BBVA Bancomer has also presented a solid level of liquidity and capital adequacy; at the close of the third quarter, it recorded a capitalization index of 15.7% (following local criteria), a comfortable figure to address the continued growth of the bank’s balance sheet.