This unit is responsible for global businesses within Spain. It manages a volume of business as of 30-Sep-2012 of around €28,000m, with a loan book of €21,293m and on-balance-sheet customer deposits of €7,084m. Gross customer lending continues to fall due to the deleveraging process mentioned earlier and BBVA’s policy of focusing on customers with high loyalty, profitability and asset quality. This heading fell by 20.0% over the quarter. The increase on the balance on the same date in 2011 is the result of a temporary increase in balances from repo agreements and guarantees related to Global Markets transactions. On-balance-sheet customer funds increased by 5.5% over the quarter, compared with a fall of 39.9% in the previous quarter, thanks to the fund-gathering efforts undertaken over the quarter.

The following are worth highlighting as regards earnings:

• A resilient gross income, which in the cumulative figure through September 2012 amounted to €705m, up 2.6% on the same period in 2011. It was boosted mainly by the good performance of revenue from customers and, in particular, revenue generated by the Global Transactional Banking unit.
• Operating expenses continue their year on year downward trend as in previous quarters. From January to September 2012 they amount to €240m, a decline of 4.8% than the same period in 2011.
• Rise in operating income, which amounted to €465m in January through September, 6.9% up on the figure for the same period in 2011.
• Generation of a cumulative net attributable profit of €268m, a year-on-year fall of 8.7% (down 39.1% in January-June 2012).

The most significant transactions and highlights for the period are detailed in the CIB section at the end of this report.