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Madrid -Top Spanish banks have reported a 2013 profit surge, predicting better times ahead after taking hefty losses in Spain and other crisis-hit eurozone nations.
Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank said they had emerged stronger from banking troubles that led to a €41bn ($56bn) rescue of their weaker rivals in Spain.
All Spanish banks have had to set aside money for losses on assets, pounded by the collapse in 2008 of a decade-long property boom.
At the same time, they have been obliged to boost the ratio of rock solid core capital on their balance sheets.
Analysts say risks remain in the sector, with doubtful loans rising in November to 13.08% of all credit extended by Spanish banks, the highest since records began in their existing form in 1962.
But the top flight of the sector appears to be emerging from the crisis.
Spain's Santander bank, the largest in the eurozone by market value, reported Thursday a 90.5% leap in net profits to €4.37bn in 2013.
Financial troubles in Spain and other fragile eurozone economies had forced Santander to slash the estimated value of its assets in past years, eroding its profits.
"After several years of strengthening the balance sheet and capital, Banco Santander is embarking on a period of strong profit growth in the coming years," Santander chairperson Emilio Botin said.
Santander said the 2013 results marked a "turnaround" after the declining profits of recent years.
CaixaBank revealed Friday that its net profits had climbed by 119% to €503m in 2013 as it recovered after setting aside large sums for bad loans and absorbed two troubled lenders.
CaixaBank net banking income edged up by 2.1% over the same period to €3.95bn.
One of Spain's largest banks, BBVA, announced the same day a 33% leap in net profit for 2013 despite suffering losses in the final quarter.
BBVA said net profit for the whole of 2013 climbed 32.9% year-over-year to €2.23bn.
Net banking income fell 3.4% over the same period to €14.6bn, said BBVA, the second-largest in Spain by market value and third-largest by assets under management.
"The outlook for 2014 has improved significantly and at BBVA, we are in an excellent position to respond to the growth of the solvent demand for credit," BBVA chairman Francisco Gonzalez said in a statement.
However, the bank reported a net loss of €849m in the final three months of 2013, caused by the loss-making sale of a 5.1% stake in China Citic Bank, worse than expected by financial markets, compared to a €20m profit in the same period a year earlier.
The bank said it had weathered "a complex environment" during 2013 by leveraging its international spread.
An improvement in the banking business in Spain is "on the horizon", it said.
Spain obtained a €41.3bn eurozone rescue loan in 2012 to shore up the balance sheets of fragile institutions under a financial sector programme, which it exited on January 23.
Under the programme, the hardest-hit Spanish banks transferred many of their dodgy assets to a "bad bank", called Sareb, which is pooling the bad assets so as to sell them at a discount.
