Spain's Banco Sabadell reports 710.4 mln-euro profits in 2016

Spanish lender Banco Sabadell reported 710.4 million euros (759.2 million U.S. dollars) of net attributable profit in 2016, according to data published by the bank on Friday.

The figure meant a 0.3 percent increase when compared with 2015, the bank reported, a slight rise explained by an increase in the bank's provisions to prevent the impact of the floor clauses.

The lender also reported that its non-performing loan rate closed at 6.14 percent in 2016, as opposed to the 7.79 percent of 2015 and 6.6 percent of the third quarter of 2016.

The bank emphasized that the rate was at 13.6 percent in December 2013, "showing a decline of over 50 percent since then."

It highlighted that the results showed "the strength of its profits and the stability of its generation of net interest income, in a low interest rate environment and after making extraordinary provisions which include the impact of floor clauses".

The European Court of Justice ruled in December that Spanish banks must pay back customers affected by mortgage floor clauses, which imposed a minimum interest rate on floating-rate mortgages setting a limit on how far mortgages rate could fall.

The Bank of Spain predicted an impact of 4 billion euros on Spanish lenders. The Spanish government passed a decree a week ago to help clients get their money back and prevent Spanish courts from being flooded with lawsuits.

Banco Sabadell is the first Spanish bank to report the impact of the European decision on profits, as not all Spanish banks are affected.

Apart from Banco Sabadell, those affected would be BBVA, Caixabank, Banco Popular and Liberbank. (1 euro=1.07 U.S. dollars) Endit