Bankinter, S.A. (BKNIY)

How it makes money

Like any bank, Bankinter earns the spread between what it pays on deposits and what it charges on loans, plus fees from wealth management, insurance distribution and payment services. Management describes 2025's record profit as driven by growth in business with customers — more lending and more fee-generating activity — rather than by one-off items.

Lending volumes and the margin the bank earns on them move with the European Central Bank's interest-rate policy and with the health of the Spanish, Portuguese and Irish economies. Falling rates compress the margin on existing loans, while an economic downturn in any of its four markets can raise defaults, especially in more exposed portfolios like SME lending.

Key risks

• Sensitivity to ECB interest-rate policy — The bank's net interest margin depends directly on the European Central Bank's policy rates, which affect what it earns on loans and pays on deposits; changes in either direction move profitability more than management can offset in the short term.
• Uneven credit risk across the loan book — At year-end 2025 the SME portfolio carried a non-performing loan ratio of 6.3%, well above the 0.8% ratio in Corporate Banking, showing that growth in higher-risk lending segments can weigh on overall asset quality even while the group average stays low.
• Operating across four regulatory regimes — Bankinter is supervised across Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Luxembourg, each with its own regulatory requirements and market conditions, adding complexity and compliance cost compared with a single-market competitor.