CaixaBank raised its profitability target for 2026 on Friday after third-quarter net profit beat forecasts, Reuters reported. Spain's biggest lender by domestic assets made a net profit of €1.76 billion in July to September, up 21.7% from €1.45 billion a year earlier, against the €1.63 billion that analysts polled by Reuters had expected.
The bank now expects a return on tangible equity (ROTE) of around 19% for 2026, up from its earlier goal of above 18%, after the ratio rose to 18.8% in the third quarter from 18% in the previous quarter. Its insurance business helped: insurance revenue rose 11.7% year on year in the quarter, and fee income rose 7.2%.
DEPOSIT COSTS CATCH UP
Net interest income rose 4.6% from a year earlier to €2.8 billion, broadly in line with the €2.81 billion analysts had forecast, and was 2.5% higher than in the previous quarter. CaixaBank kept its 2026 guidance for lending income of above €11 billion, compared with €10.67 billion in 2025.
Higher interest rates are starting to support margins on loan books, according to Reuters, though faster repricing of deposits paid out to clients is partly offsetting that. The cost of deposits rose 9 basis points in the quarter while yields on loans rose 7 basis points, narrowing the customer spread by 2 basis points to 287 basis points.
Loan-loss provisions rose 8.8% from the same quarter last year. Even so, the cost of risk was 0.24%, unchanged from the previous quarter, and the bank expects it below 25 basis points by the end of 2026.
A MAINLY DOMESTIC FRANCHISE
Spain's banking system is concentrated and dominated by three large groups, Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank, according to TGB's market profile of Spain. Santander and BBVA run large international franchises, while CaixaBank's business is predominantly domestic. At its half-year results the group served 20.9 million customers in Spain and Portugal through more than 4,500 branches, and its total assets exceeded €693 billion.
In the first half of 2026 the group made a net profit of €3.2 billion, up 8.5% from €2.95 billion a year earlier. Its non-performing loan ratio fell to 1.78% at the end of the half from 2.07% at the end of 2025, and its common equity tier 1 ratio stood at 12.5%, including a 20-basis-point effect from its eighth €500 million share buyback, announced in April 2026.
Chief executive Gonzalo Gortázar said at the half-year results that the bank had maintained its ROTE at 18%, "demonstrating that we continue to deliver very successfully on our Strategic Plan". The board was due to set the final amount of the interim dividend in October; at the half-year results CaixaBank put it at between €961 million and €1.28 billion, or 30% to 40% of first-half net profit, payable in November.
THE TGB VIEW
CaixaBank ranks 19th in Europe in the TGB Bank Rankings, with US$780.2 billion of assets, US$45.2 billion of equity and a 15.3% return on equity in 2025, behind BBVA in 15th place with an 18.3% return. Credit costs set the two apart this quarter: CaixaBank's cost of risk was 0.24%, against 1.44% at BBVA, which runs large international franchises and made €3.02 billion of net profit in the same three months. The figures to watch are the customer spread, which fell 2 basis points to 287 basis points as deposit costs rose faster than loan yields, and the interim dividend payable in November.
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