Caixa Econômica Federal's net profit in the first quarter of 2021 was R$ 4.6 billion (US$ 876m), an increase of 50.3% over the same period last year, the public bank informed. Commenting on the balance of the first quarter by videoconference a few hours after the announcement, Caixa's president Pedro Guimarães, celebrated the "very solid" and "record of all time" result.
Among the biggest highlights of the first three months of this year, Caixa reported a revenue of R$ 9 billion (US$ 1.71b) from real estate credit operations, an increase of 10.5% in relation to the first quarter of last year. This type of operation is responsible for 52.3% of all bank credit operations revenue.
Caixa recorded, in 1Q21, a balance of R$ 518.4 billion (US$ 98.75b) in mortgage loans, with 5.7 million contracts and 68.2% market share. Between the beginning of January and the end of March, the bank closed 134.8 thousand new real estate financing contracts. At this point, the highlight was the 103.1% year-on-year increase in contracts by the Brazilian Savings and Loan System (SBPE), whose portfolio reached R$ 16.2 billion (US$ 308m).
Revenues from the provision of services and tariffs in the first quarter of this year were R$ 5.7 billion (US$ 1.08b), down 1.9% in comparison with the same period last year. In this field, the biggest reductions were in revenues from agreements and collections (25.1%), investment funds (7.2%) and current account (7%). On the other hand, insurance revenues rose 376.3%.
"It is already an impact of new payment method Pix, this is a real impact. And the impact we also had of some issues of the return of emergency aid," said Guimarães on the causes of the retraction in revenue from services and tariffs. The bank also pointed out that the return on equity, an indicator of the level of profitability, reached 16.33%, compared to 15.18% registered in the last quarter of 2020. The indicator, however, is below that registered in the three first months of 2020, when it was 24%.
CAIXA lotteries raised R$ 3.8 billion (US$ 725m) in 1Q21. Among the amounts, close to R$ 1.9 billion (US$ 362m) were transferred to the Federal Government's social programs in the areas of social security, sports, culture, public security, education, and health. In 1Q21, R$ 1.5 billion (U$ 285m) were distributed in net prizes, 14% higher than the same period in 2020.
Source: GMB
