BNU says drop due to reduction of interest rates on loans, less credit card transactions

Following the results published on Wednesday which showed a 41.7% drop in the profits of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU) in 2020, the BNU has justified the decline as being due to the current Covid-19 pandemic situation, which dragged down the interest rates on loans as well as created a significant drop in transactions using credit cards, particularly by tourists.

In a press statement released today (Thursday), BNU stated, “Despite the increase of the credit granted, the net interest margin decreased to MOP833.2 million reflecting the impact of the widespread reduction of interest rates. Net fees and commissions also decreased, particularly those related to credit card fees due to the sharp drop of the number of visitors to Macau and the number and volume of transactions.”

The bank also noted that last year “amidst an extremely adverse worldwide and local environment,” there was also a considerable contraction in the volume of foreign exchange transactions which caused an adverse impact on the profits from financial operations.

Although the results presented were not so positive when compared to the other major banking institutions in Macau, which managed to grow in 2020, although marginally in most cases, BNU considers its operations results to have “continued to show a robust position with a strong solvency ratio of 20.3%, lower than the industry average efficiency ratios of cost-to-income (41.6%) and cost-to-income core (35.6%), and a Return on Equity Ratio of 7.4%.”

The Portuguese bank, part of the Portuguese state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos group, also added that gross loans and advances to customers grew by 10.5% in 2020 reaching MOP26,959.4 million.