On Wednesday, Spain’s Santander (BME:SAN) reported that its net profit for the third quarter went up by 11%, which was more than expected. This was because rising banking revenues made up for higher provisions in some of its main markets, like Brazil and the United States.
The second-largest bank in the euro zone based on market value made a net profit of 2.42 billion euros ($2.41 billion), which is more than the 2.17 billion euros it made in the same quarter last year. Reuters asked a group of analysts, and they said they expected a net profit of 2.19 billion euros.
Santander’s Chairman, Ana Botin, said in a statement, “We expect the macroeconomic environment to remain difficult as markets in Europe and North America adjust to levels of inflation not seen in decades.”
Net loan-loss provisions went up 24% from the previous year to 2.76 billion euros. This is similar to what happened with lenders in the United States.
Related: Hector Grisi will take over as CEO of Santander in January 2023.
JP Morgan, for example, put aside more cash in case a slowdown in the economy hurts them.
Diversifying, especially in Latin America, has helped Santander deal with the tough times for lenders in Europe after the financial crisis.
The bank did well in Latin America because of changes in the local currency, but inflation was also going up.
Overall, costs went up 8.5% from a year ago when measured in the same currency.
Analysts had predicted that sales would go up by 13.15 billion euros, but they went up by 13%, to 13.51 billion euros.
Net interest income, which is the income from loans minus the cost of deposits, went up 18.8% year-over-year to 10.05 billion euros, which was more than what was expected, which was 9.78 billion euros. This was because interest rates in both developing and developed markets went up.
($1 = 1.0445 euros)