Bankinter Portugal writes €800m in mortgages

Glória Ortiz, CEO of Bankinter, disclosed that the bank's Portuguese operation granted €800 million in new mortgage loans between January and June 2026, a figure she shared during a Q&A session with journalists following the bank's half-year results presentation.

The disclosure matters for a structural reason. Bankinter entered Portugal in 2016 by acquiring Barclays' retail network and currently holds eighth place in the Portuguese market with a 3.48% share. Those €800 million were originated from that position, in six months, in a market where total new loans for house purchase rose 17.1% across 2025 and where falling rates, the average rate on new Portuguese mortgages stood at 2.85% in April 2026, down 21 basis points year-on-year, mechanically expanded the pool of eligible borrowers across every lender.

Bankinter's Portuguese operation competes with CGD, Millennium BCP, Novo Banco, BPI, and Santander Totta, the five incumbents that dominate domestic mortgage origination. CGD holds the highest mortgage market share among Portuguese lenders. Bankinter's structural position is built on cost discipline rather than scale: the bank recorded a 32% efficiency ratio in Portugal for H1 2026, a level the incumbents have not publicly matched for the same period.

The broader H1 numbers support that picture. Lending volume in Portugal reached €11.5 billion, up 8% year-on-year, with commercial banking growing 11% to €7.9 billion and corporate banking rising 2% to €3.6 billion. Customer funds reached €15 billion, up 12%, and assets under custody surged 29% to €6 billion. Net interest income rose 10% to €156 million, net fee income grew 14% to €44 million, and the gross margin reached €196 million, up 10%. Operating costs rose 7% to €63 million, growing at a slower pace than revenue, which pushed operating income to €133 million, an 11% increase. Pre-tax profit reached €114 million after a 28% rise in provisions to €19 million, representing 9% year-on-year growth.

Ortiz also addressed the Bank of Portugal's updated macroprudential framework during the presentation. She argued that extending mortgage maturities while lowering the maximum debt-service-to-income ratio to 45% is a more appropriate way to manage risk than imposing caps on lending volumes. In her assessment, the borrower's financial burden is a more meaningful risk indicator than loan duration. She also endorsed public guarantee mechanisms to help young buyers meet down-payment requirements.

That regulatory context gives the €800 million figure its forward relevance. The Bank of Portugal's revised rules apply to loans where credit assessment takes place from 1 August 2026, meaning nearly all of Bankinter's first-half origination was written under the previous, looser framework. The DSTI reduction from 50% to 45%, including stress tests, will tighten eligibility criteria for new applicants in the second half of the year.

Ortiz's public alignment with the regulator's stated rationale positions Bankinter ahead of the rule change rather than against it. Whether the volume held in H1 can be sustained once the constraint tightens will be the real measure of the bank's mortgage ambitions in Portugal, where it has publicly targeted a 7% market share.