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Strong and " on rails ", says his director general. With net income group share of € 1.1 billion in the third quarter (up 3.3% year-on-year), Crédit Agricole SA – the listed entity of Crédit Agricole Group – achieved a solvency ratio 11.5%, higher than its objective. Even better, Crédit Agricole is not one of the twelve banks called by the ECB to strengthen their equity in the wake of stress tests.
What stir up the appetite of investors who would see this "pool" of equity redistributed to them? "Getting 50 basis points above our target level is just being comfortable"answered Philippe Brbadac, the CEO of CASA, on the sidelines of the presentation of these results, published Wednesday.
In line with the consensus
If the Green Bank was able to achieve this, it was because its engines were running at full speed during the quarter. In addition to its upward performance, CASA also experienced dynamic activity (+ 5% year-on-year), at 4.8 billion euros, driven in particular by the demand for credit, in France as in Italy. The net result, higher than the consensus noted by Reuters, has been greeted softly on the stock market. Group-wide (CASA plus the results of Crédit Agricole's 39 regional banks), net income group share reached 1.769 billion euros (-7.3% due to an unfavorable base effect) .
New start
Virtually all trades pull in the same direction and benefit from a "positive scissors effect": in short, incomes rise and, at the same time, expenses, without decreasing, increase more slowly than incomes.
The year, however, is characterized by a very good news: retail banking, which is suffering in particular from the environment of low interest rates in the euro zone, has found new momentum. "Regional mutuals like LCL seem to have reached the point of inflection where the fall in interest rates is offset by the growth of volumes and commissions"says the bank in a statement. "Even if the rates do not go up, we would be able to recover profitability", remarks Philippe Brbadac.
Vigilant point
Still, questions remain: credit production is growing rapidly, with the bank even gaining market share. This is of course good news, but, at the same time, the authorities are constantly warning against the risk of overheating of debt in France.
Another point of vigilance, like BNP Paribas a few days ago, the rate and commodities business (FICC) experienced a sharp drop in revenues (-16% year on year in the third quarter). In question, the pressure on prices exerted by US banks. "The interest rate markets were characterized this quarter by very high volumes, but margins that have been much reduced and therefore revenues that have fallen", detailed Jérôme Grivet, the financial director of CASA. CACIB, Crédit Agricole's corporate and investment bank, posted a quarterly result down 2.5% to € 359 million.
Edouard Lederer
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