Bankinter expands its business strategy in Ireland and establishes a branch

Bankinter has taken a new step in its business strategy in Ireland by initiating the necessary administrative requirements to establish the new branch through which it will operate in that country under its own brand and offer the full range of financial products and services. In the meantime, Avant Money will maintain the current business strategy and continue to operate in the country under the Avant Money brand.

 

Bankinter Group has been operating in Ireland since May 2019 through Avant Money, a consumer loans company regulated by the Bank of Ireland as a payment institution, retail credit institution and insurance distributor. In September 2020, Bankinter expanded its strategy to include mortgages, which have performed extremely well in the intervening years, and since then the Bank has concentrated all of its business under the new brand Avant Money. At the close of the first quarter of 2024, the mortgage portfolio in Ireland amounted to 2.4 billion euros, an increase of 53% compared with a year ago.

To carry this out, the Bankinter Group is reorganising its business in Ireland, including several steps:

 

The first step is the acquisition from its subsidiary Bankinter Consumer Finance of all the shares that make up the share capital issued by Avant Money. This will make Bankinter the sole shareholder of the company in Ireland.

 

The Bank will then initiate the process to establish Bankinter Ireland, which will operate as a branch of the parent company in that country and to which all assets, liabilities, rights, obligations and other legal relations acquired by Bankinter will be assigned as a result of the operation. The branch will establish a permanent presence in Ireland and will continue to pursue the activities currently carried out by Avant Money in that country, subsequently extending to them include customer deposits and savings.

 

Bankinter Group's current plans involve the phased rollout of a consumer-oriented digital bank that will offer savings products to Irish consumers, with the possibility at a later stage of other financial services that will be provided in Ireland.

With this operation, Bankinter aims to: leverage Avant Money's current operational structure to reduce costs and improve efficiency; optimise the banking experience for Irish customers through a broad and innovative range of financial products and services; and continue to diversify the revenue streams that will support the Group's future growth.

 

A growing business

 

Avant Money, under different legal forms, has been present in the Republic of Ireland as a financial service provider since 1997. On 31 May 2019, Bankinter closed the deal to purchase Avant Money after obtaining the required authorisations from the European Central Bank and the Central Bank of Ireland.

 

Through Avant Money, Bankinter took on 130,000 customers and a loan portfolio of 290 million euros in deferred credit card debt, as well as 105 million euros in personal loans.

The loan portfolio of Avant Money, the current brand under which the Bank operates in Ireland, stands at 3.3 billion euros (2.4 billion euros in mortgages and the remainder, 900 million euros, in consumer loans) with an overall NPL ratio of 0.34%.

 

The pre-tax profit of this business in this first quarter of the year was 9 million euros. The efficiency ratio is 43.3%. The entity currently provides services to approximately 200,000 customers in the Republic of Ireland.