CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT
AEB banks obtained an attributable profit of €15.125 billion in 2021, compared to the losses recorded in the previous year due to measures adopted in response to the potential adverse effects of the pandemic on the economy.
The improvement in recurring margins of the income statement and lower provisioning and write-down requirements, following the significant effort made in the previous year, explain the return to profitability in 2021.
Gross margin, which represents total income obtained, increased by 4.5% year-on-year, exceeding €78 billion, due to the improvement in net interest margin and higher net fee income, two items that each contributed an increase of more than €1.5 billion.
Despite an increase in operating expenses of 2.6% compared to the previous year, the efficiency ratio stood at 48.1% in 2021, representing an improvement over the 48.9% rate for the previous year.
The high volume of extraordinary provisions and write-downs made in 2020, together with the containment of credit non-performing loans and the favorable performance of economic activity throughout 2021, have enabled a significant reduction in the amount of provisions and allowances.
With a tax expense similar to that of 2020 and better extraordinary results, net income rose to €17.632 billion, which placed return on equity (ROE) at 9%, above that recorded in the years prior to the COVID crisis.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
The aggregate consolidated balance sheets of AEB banks amounted to €2.77 trillion as of December 31, 2021, with year-on-year growth of 2.33%.
Customer lending represented a volume of €1.59 trillion at year-end, almost €81 billion more than twelve months earlier, representing growth of 5.3%. The non-performing loan ratio decreased from 3.69% in December 2020 to 3.64% at the end of 2021, with 70% coverage of doubtful assets, compared to 75% in the previous year.
Customer deposits increased by 7% in 2021 and as of December 31 reached a balance of €1.58 trillion, bringing the loan-to-deposit ratio (LTD ratio) to 101%, compared to 102% a year earlier, and the commercial gap (balance difference) stood below €14 billion.
Since 2020, unlike in previous years, banks have maintained a net lending position vis-à-vis central banks and credit institutions, which as of December 2021 showed a net balance of €112 billion lent.
Equity represented 7.6% of assets in December 2021, with year-on-year growth of 3.9%. In this regard, banks achieved a CET1 ratio (fully loaded), which relates the highest quality capital to risk-weighted assets, of 12.3%, representing 45 basis points above the previous year.
