Gross lending to customers continued to decline due to the deleveraging process underway in the European and U.S. economies, together with CIB’s strategy of selective growth in certain customers and portfolios. It fell by 8.3% in the quarter and 16.2% over the year to €49,374m. By geographical areas, the balances are down in Europe, Asia and the U.S., they have remained stable in Mexico (down 1.3% year-on-year) and increased in South America (up 5.6%).

From the point of view of liabilities, the effort by CIB to adequately manage liquidity is reflected in the reverse of the trend in customer funds. Following the outflows observed mainly in the first half of 2012 as a result of the downgrade of the credit rating of Spain and BBVA, on-balance-sheet customer funds, excluding repos, increased by 7.5% in the last quarter and stood at €29,359m as of 31-Dec-2012.