{"id":980086,"date":"2023-02-02T16:47:48","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T16:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1645492"},"modified":"2023-02-02T16:47:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T16:47:48","slug":"big-banks-are-making-a-killing-amid-inflation-and-the-cost-of-living-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/02\/02\/big-banks-are-making-a-killing-amid-inflation-and-the-cost-of-living-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Big banks are making a killing amid inflation and the cost of living crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has reported record profits for 2022, becoming the latest European lender to get a boost from higher interest rates.<\/p>\n

The bank posted an annual net profit of \u20ac9.6bn, up 18% from 2021 and higher than forecast by analysts polled by financial data firm FactSet.<\/p>\n

However, the bank’s massive profits are still streaming in spite of multiple crises. Recent data showed the extent of what poor people face, with particularly low rates of saving<\/a> in the UK. This is before we address the spiralling climate crisis, fuelled in part by both banks<\/a> and fossil fuel giants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smashed records<\/h2>\n

The Santander result smashed the previous record annual profit of \u20ac9.06bn seen in 2007, before the global financial crisis of 2008.<\/p>\n

Banco Santander boss Ana Botin said:<\/p>\n

\n

2022 was another strong year for Santander as we made further progress in growing our customer base profitably, while maintaining a rock-solid balance sheet.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Central banks have hiked interest rates worldwide in an effort to tame runaway inflation, which jumped after economies emerged from Covid restrictions, and surged higher still after Russia invaded Ukraine<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Banks across Europe have capitalised on higher borrowing costs. BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria), Spain’s second-biggest lender by market value after Santander, posted a 38% jump in its net profit to a record \u20ac6.42bn in 2022. Germany’s largest lender, Deutsche Bank, also said it booked its highest annual profit since 2007 last year.<\/p>\n

Cashing in<\/h2>\n

Botin said central banks and governments are expected to continue to focus on bringing down inflation this year:<\/p>\n

\n

Our team has proven experience in navigating these conditions successfully and we expect revenue growth will continue to offset cost inflation pressures and the anticipated increase in cost of risk.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The bank, which has a strong presence in Europe and Latin America, added seven million new clients last year, bringing its worldwide total to 160 million.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that Botin has previously lashed out against the idea of windfall taxes<\/a> on the banking industry:<\/p>\n

\n

We need . . . sustainable growth, non-inflationary growth \u2013 and banks are fundamental to this equation. Governments need to understand that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Like Big Oil<\/a>, big banks are making a killing despite the difficulties facing normal people. And it would be fair to say they aren’t big fans of a bit of mild redistribution. And this comes soon after big banks in the City of London gave their biggest bonuses<\/a> since the 2007-08 crash. Things needs to change, and it can only be done from below.<\/span><\/p>\n

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons\/HRVdriveblue4449, cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse<\/em><\/p>\n

By Joe Glenton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has reported record profits for 2022, becoming the latest European lender to get a boost from higher interest rates. \u2026 <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n

By Joe Glenton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1547,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1871,56990,9861,365,13619,4,5032,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":980270,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980086\/revisions\/980270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}