{"id":297805,"date":"2026-01-22T14:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/297805\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T14:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:54:12","slug":"avant-owner-bankinter-says-irish-lending-has-hit-e5bn-no-interest-in-ptsb-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/297805\/","title":{"rendered":"Avant owner Bankinter says Irish lending has hit \u20ac5bn, no interest in PTSB"},"content":{"rendered":"

CEO rules out any interest in bidding for a business in Ireland\n<\/p>\n

\"Bankinter's<\/p>\n

Bankinter’s CEO, Gloria Ortiz, during a press conference at Bankinter’s headquarters on October 23, 2025, in Madrid, Spain. Photo: A Perez Meca\/Europa Press via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Lending in Ireland by Spain\u2019s Bankinter was up 23pc last year to \u20ac5bn, boosted by its growing mortgage book.<\/p>\n

The bank, which trades here as Avant Money, had a total mortgage book of \u20ac4bn at the end of the year, up 27pc since the previous year. Consumer loans of \u20ac1bn were up 11pc in the year.<\/p>\n

The Spanish lender said growth in the Ireland business was significantly faster than its other markets, albeit from a lower base. The bank\u2019s growth here has sparked speculation it could look to buy PTSB, though the Spanish lender has previously played down any such interest.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, CEO Gloria Ortiz went further, saying her bank has no interest in buying any banking business here \u2013 where PTSB has been put on the market. <\/p>\n

“We are not interested in acquiring any operations in Ireland,\u201d she told analysts on a call following the results. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur strategy is focused on organic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We are not looking at PTSB and, I don\u2019t know, I cannot be any clearer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said the sale process may create an opportunity to gain market share and pick up new customers shaken out of the existing banks, however.<\/p>\n

The bank first entered the Irish market in 2018 by buying what was then AvantCard from the Apollo investment group. The renamed Avant Money began offering mortgages five years ago.<\/p>\n

In a results presentation on Thursday Bankinter reported a \u20ac46m profit before tax for 2025 in Ireland. <\/p>\n

At group level the Spanish parent bank reported a pre-tax profit for 2025 of \u20ac1.535bn in 2025.<\/p>\n

Bankinter, headed by CEO Gloria Ortiz, has also said it plans to start taking deposits in Ireland, a move that will add competitive pressure in a market where the incumbent banks have benefited from significant customer inertia and wariness among savers of putting money in overseas banks..<\/p>\n

Bankinter is the fifth largest bank in Spain and intends for its Avant Money brand here to merge into a newly established Irish branch of Bankinter, which is authorised by the Spanish central bank and will be regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland for conduct of business rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEO rules out any interest in bidding for a business in Ireland Bankinter’s CEO, Gloria Ortiz, during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,10891,18,19,17],"class_list":["post-297805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-donal-odonovan","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115939328900343821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}