Santander books massive 12.6-bn-euro charge

MADRID: Spain's Santander bank said Wednesday it had booked a 12.6-billion-euro ($14.8-billion) writedown due to the degraded economic outlook over the coronavirus pandemic.

The charge pushed the bank -- the eurozone's second largest by market capitalisation -- to a 11.1-billion-euro net loss in the second quarter.

The bank said the loss did not affect its liquidity and pointed out that it still earned an underlying profit of 1.9 billion euros.

That was still 48 percent lower than the same period last year, however, as the bank increased by 46 percent to 3.1 billion the amount of money it put aside to cover the risk on loan losses.

"The past six months have been among the most challenging in our history," Santander's executive chairwoman Ana Botin said in a earnings statement.

"The impact of the pandemic has tested us all and I am proud of how Santander has responded."

Botin said the write down was primarily a non-cash revaluation of goodwill and deferred tax assets due to the impact of the pandemic on the economic outlook, "It has no impact on the group's balance sheet strength," she said.

Banks must regularly re-evaluate the value of their assets. Lower valuations can force them to take huge charges against earnings that may not have any real impact on their operations.

Almost half the writedowns were for Santander's British operations at 6.1 billion euros. US operations were hit by 2.3 billion, Poland 1.2 billion and consumer credit by 477 million.

Santander's shares were down 3.5 percent in morning trading while Madrid's IBEX 35 stock index was 0.5 percent lower.