The Portuguese Commercial Bank (BCP), bailed out in 2012 by Passos Coelho using €3 billion of Troika funds, has recorded a loss of €597 million in the year to September, which is 'better than expected' according to analysts who are looking at last year’s equivalent period loses of €796 million.
The bank, trading on the high street through Millennium BPC branches, made provision for bad loans of €622.7 million, 10.2 % less than in the same period last year but still not good news for the bank’s boss Nuno Amado who also saw net interest income, the difference it earns between borrowing and lending money, down 17.5%.
The results however "are in line with the strategic plan," said the bank in a statement sent to the regulator.
BCP has a long term plan to contain costs by closing branches and laying off staff in the coming years. It did manage to extricate itself from Greece with the sale of its position in Piraeus Bank creating a welcome gain of €174 million.
The bank also stresses that it is in a comfortably liquid situation with a 5.4% increase in customer deposits. The bank may currently be liquid but with the current scale of operating losses is hard to see how trimming a few costs will reverse the negative figures.
