Mexico

Highlights

  • Growth in lending activity in all segments during the first semester
  • Improved customer spread, which is reflected in the net interest income
  • Significant improvement in the efficiency ratio
  • Loan-loss provisions in line with the first half of 2021

Business activity (1)
(VARIATION AT CONSTANT EXCHANGE RATE COMPARED TO 31-12-21)

(1) Excluding repos.

Net interest income/ AVERAGE TOTAL ASSETS
(PERCENTAGE AT CONSTANT EXCHANGE RATE)


Operating income
(Millions of euros at constant exchange rate)

(1) At current exchange rate: +42.6%.

Net attributable profit (LOSS)
(Millions of euros at constant exchange rate)

(1) At current exchange rate: +62.8%.

Financial statements and relevant business indicators (Millions of euros and percentage)

Income statement 1H22 ∆% ∆% (1) 1H21 (2)
Net interest income 3,684 32.9 21.1 2,771
Net fees and commissions 744 28.0 16.6 581
Net trading income 227 37.8 25.6 165
Other operating income and expenses 232 165.7 142.1 87
Gross income 4,887 35.6 23.5 3,604
Operating expenses (1,571) 22.9 11.9 (1,279)
Personnel expenses (699) 33.3 21.4 (524)
Other administrative expenses (684) 14.7 4.5 (597)
Depreciation (188) 19.2 8.6 (158)
Operating income 3,316 42.6 29.9 2,325
Impairment on financial assets not measured at fair value through profit or loss (805) 8.6 (1.0) (741)
Provisions or reversal of provisions and other results (9) n.s. n.s. 9
Profit (loss) before tax 2,502 57.0 43.1 1,593
Income tax (681) 43.5 30.8 (474)
Profit (loss) for the period 1,821 62.8 48.3 1,119
Non-controlling interests (0) 57.3 43.3 (0)
Net attributable profit (loss) 1,821 62.8 48.3 1,119
  • (1) At constant exchange rate.
  • (2) Restated balances. For more information, please refer to the “Business Areas” section.
Balance sheets 30-06-22 ∆% ∆% (1) 31-12-21
Cash, cash balances at central banks and other demand deposits 16,589 27.8 15.7 12,985
Financial assets designated at fair value 39,991 13.9 3.1 35,126
Of which: loans and advances 1,397 67.2 51.5 835
Financial assets at amortized cost 78,487 20.2 8.9 65,311
Of which: loans and advances to customers 67,020 20.1 8.8 55,809
Tangible assets 1,854 7.1 (3.0) 1,731
Other assets 3,439 16.5 5.5 2,953
Total assets/liabilities and equity 140,360 18.8 7.6 118,106
Financial liabilities held for trading and designated at fair value through profit or loss 26,796 35.0 22.3 19,843
Deposits from central banks and credit institutions 5,141 57.3 42.5 3,268
Deposits from customers 72,692 13.6 2.9 64,003
Debt certificates 9,353 17.2 6.1 7,984
Other liabilities 17,429 10.5 0.1 15,779
Regulatory capital allocated 8,949 23.8 12.1 7,229
Relevant business indicators 30-06-22 ∆% ∆% (1) 31-12-21
Performing loans and advances to customers under management (2) 67,418 20.5 9.2 55,926
Non-performing loans 2,041 6.3 (3.7) 1,921
Customer deposits under management (2) 72,038 13.7 3.0 63,349
Off-balance sheet funds (3) 36,908 14.0 3.2 32,380
Risk-weighted assets 73,869 14.4 3.6 64,573
Efficiency ratio (%) 32.2 35.3
NPL ratio (%) 2.8 3.2
NPL coverage ratio (%) 119 106
Cost of risk (%) 2.57 2.67
  • (1) At constant exchange rate.
  • (2) Excluding repos.
  • (3) Includes mutual funds, customer portfolios and other off-balance sheet funds.

Macro and industry trends

Economic growth has surprised on the upside during the beginning of 2022, mainly due to the good performance of domestic demand. This has led BBVA Research to revise upwards its forecast for GDP growth this year to 2.0% (eight-tenths of a percentage point higher than the previous forecast). It is also expected that growth will moderate next year to 1.6%, in line with the global economic slowdown and in an environment in which inflation will remain elevated (around 7.7% in 2022 and 5.2% in 2023, on average). This may require Banxico to raise interest rates above the current level of 7.75%. With regards to the banking system, based on data of May 2022, lending volumes grew by 9.3% over the past year. This growth is reflected by similar rates in the main portfolios: housing credit (+10,7%), consumer credit (+11,0%), and corporate credit (+9,8%). In addition, deposits (demand and time deposits) increased by 10.1% year-on-year to May 2022. The NPL ratio for the system decreased to 2.41% in May 2022 from 2.52% twelve months earlier, and capital indicators are within comfortable levels.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, all the comments below on rates of change, for both activity and results, will be given at constant exchange rate. These rates, together with changes at current exchange rates, can be found in the attached tables of financial statements and relevant business indicators.

Activity

The most relevant aspects related to the area's activity during the first half of 2022 were:

  • Lending activity (performing loans under management) grew 9.2% between January and June 2022, with growth in the wholesale portfolio above that of the retail portfolio. The wholesale portfolio, which includes larger companies and the public sector, recorded a growth of 9.9%, due to commercial efforts to attract and retain new customers. For its part, the retail segment accelerated its rate of growth to 7.3% in the semester. Within this segment, mortgage loans, consumer loans and credit cards (+6.1%, +8.3% and +6.1%, respectively) showed the greatest dynamism. The aforementioned has made it possible to maintain a stable composition in lending activity.
  • Customer deposits under management increased in the first half of 2022 (+3.0%). This performance is explained by both the growth in demand deposits (+2.7%) and by time deposits (+4.6%). For its part, off-balance sheet funds grew at a rate of 3.2% between January and June 2022.

The most relevant of the evolution of the area's activity in the second quarter of 2022 has been:

  • Lending activity increased by 4.8% in the quarter, with growth in the wholesale segment (+5.4%) reflecting greater dynamism in demand (mainly in the SMEs portfolio) above the retail segment (+3.9%) where consumer portfolios and credit cards stood out.
  • With regard to the asset quality indicators, the NPL ratio stood at 2.8% at the end of June, an improvement of 14 basis points in the quarter, as a result of a generalized increase in activity in the quarter led by the corporate and retail portfolio. Non-performing loans where supported by the good performance of recoveries, which has offset higher inflows in the quarter, a consequence of the consumer portfolio and the one-off deterioration of one customer. For its part, the NPL coverage ratio improved 354 basis points in the quarter and stood at 119% at the end of June.
  • Total funds under management remained stable in the quarter (-0.1%) with growth in time deposits, which registered a variation of +3.6%, favored by the 125 basis points increase in interest rates made by Banxico during the second quarter and in off-balance sheet funds (+1.7%).

Results

In Mexico, BBVA achieved a net attributable profit of €1,821m between January and June 2022, representing an increase of 48.3% compared to the first half of 2021, mainly as a result of the good performance of recurring revenues, especially favored by the dynamism of the net interest income and contained loan-loss provisions, which compensated the increase in operating expenses.

The most relevant aspects of the year-on-year changes in the income statement at the end of June 2022 are summarized below:

  • Net interest income increased by 21.1%, mainly as a result of both higher volumes of loans under management and the price effect, as some portfolios already reflect increased official interest rates together with better results from the securities portfolio.
  • Net fees and commissions increased by 16.6% thanks to the increase in the level of transactions, especially on credit cards, as well as those arising from investment banking operations and mutual fund management.
  • NTI increased by 25.6% year-on-year, mainly due to the excellent results of the Global Markets unit.
  • The other operating income and expenses line recorded a year-on-year growth of 142.1%, thanks to higher results of the insurance business.
  • Operating expenses increased (+11.9%), mainly due to higher personnel expenses, impacted by the employee internalization process carried out in the second half of 2021. General expenses also increased, in an environment of rising prices where certain expenses are indexed to inflation, as well as by higher marketing and technology expenses. Notwithstanding the above, there was a significant improvement of 333 basis points in the efficiency ratio, which stood at 32.2% compared to 35.5% recorded twelve months earlier.
  • The impairment on financial assets remained very much in line with the first half of 2021 (-1.0%), due to the good performance of the portfolio together with an adequate management of recoveries. As a result of all the above, the cumulative cost of risk at the end of June 2022 stood at 2.57%, -27 basis points below the previous quarter.
  • The provisions and other results line showed an unfavorable comparison, mainly due to provisions for contingent liabilities and commitments.

In the quarter, excluding the exchange rate effects, BBVA Mexico generated net attributable profit of € 1,014m, showing a growth of +25.8% compared to the previous quarter. This result was driven by the good performance of insurance income, as a result of the annual renewal of policies for the insured group, together with the performance of recurring revenue items (net interest income and fees and commissions, which grew by +4.3%), and the NTI, supported by contained operating expenses (+0.2%) and a positive evolution of provisions for impairment on financial assets (-14.6%) in the quarter.