Like Société Générale and BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole SA posted excellent results for the second quarter of 2021. The mutual bank intends to take advantage of this, and, just two months after the previous one, is planning to launch a new 500 million euro share buyback program.
Results exceeding forecasts
Crédit Agricole SA's net income, Group share, for the first half of 2021 rose by 44.9% year-on-year. It reached 2.5 billion euros, the highest level since the mutual bank was listed in 2001.
Buoyed by its excellent results, the company intends to launch its second share buyback program of the year. The first, for 559 million euros, was launched less than two months ago. The new program, which could reach 500 million euros by the end of 2021, has yet to be validated by the European Central Bank, which has just lifted its restrictions on dividends.
In the second quarter alone, the mutual bank posted net income of 1.6 billion euros, beating analysts' forecasts of 1.2 billion euros. Crédit Agricole certainly benefited from the acquisition of Creval in Italy, but Philippe Brassac, the Group's CEO, also acknowledges the beneficial effect of the economic support measures put in place by the European Union and member states.
Crédit Agricole gets through the crisis without too much difficulty
During the presentation of the results, Philippe Brassac also stressed the importance of the universal banking model adopted by Crédit Agricole SA.
In his view, this model has enabled the mutual bank to weather the crisis, recording very steady revenues from one quarter to the next, and bringing its cost/income ratio (which measures profits against costs) down to 55.3% in Q2 2021.
In H1 2019, Crédit Agricole had attracted 935,000 new customers, a figure that had fallen to 688,000 in H1 2020. The 1st half of 2021 is promising again, with 905,000 new customers.
Another positive point for the group is that it ranks as one of the strongest, as demonstrated by the stress tests carried out by the European Banking Authority and the European Central Bank.
During the presentation of the Group's results, Philippe Brassac also spoke of his intention to become actively involved in environmental protection, with announcements to be made before COP 26.