It is an irony of Portugal’s financial sector that the bank that derives the biggest share of its income from the domestic market is foreign-owned.
As four of the top five banks endeavour to increase the contribution of overseas operations to their net income – partly to offset weak economic growth at home – Santander Totta, which was acquired by the Spanish Santander group in 2000, achieved the highest return on equity in the sector last year (25.1%). This was from a business that, by the nature of its ownership, is exclusively focused on the Portuguese market.
