Banca

The Spanish banks reported sharp earnings growth in 2023, with the six largest banks recording over €26 billion in profits on aggregate, up 27% from 2022. This situation has prompted a deep dive into the issue in an attempt to understand the role these earnings play not only in the stability and growth of the financial institutions themselves but also in creating general economic wellbeing.

Positive earnings performance and lower cost of equity have led the European banks to outperform the general stock indices for the last two years; nevertheless, they have yet to close the gap between their market value and book value, despite the fact that their return on equity (ROE) is back above 10%, the threshold traditionally deemed necessary to close the valuation gap. While the inability to close this gap appears to lie with the fact that the cost of equity (CoE) required of the banks has increased above the conventionally assumed threshold of 10%, the discount at which the European and Spanish banks are currently trading seems excessive.