During the first half of 2004, the behavior of the Portuguese banking sector was characterized by moderation in its annual growth rates.

Net assets increased 2.5%, going to 318.139 billion euros, while customer loans behaved almost identically (+3.0%, to 185.722 billion euros). However, it could just be that this behavior in growth rates, aside from the economic situation, is the result of an increasing recourse to credit-securitization operations which, by the end of June 2004, had already reach a volume of 11.874 billion euros, according to the data published by the Bank of Portugal in its August 2004 Statistical Bulletin.

With regard to resources, customers funds (made up of current, time, and savings accounts) increased some 5.2%, to 141.036 billion euros, while liabilities corresponding to securities grew at a particularly brisk pace (24.5%, to 40.967 billion euros). Here, mention should be made of the impact that the placement of bond issues has taken on, especially vis-à-vis major international investors.

On a par with that, the behavior of productivity and efficiency indicators points to an improvement (0.21 p.p.) in production costs, while the slight increase (variation of 0.10 p.p., to 1.49%) demonstrated by managed financial-assets costs (Administrative Costs / Financial Assets) could be related to the growth in the volume of securitized credit.

Data for the first half of 2004 for the banking system, with regard to the number of branches and employees reveal a trend toward stabilization as compared to the previous year-on period. Currently, the sector boasts a network of 5 389 branches and a banking population of 53 602 people.

Consequently, the indicator of 10 employees per branch remains the same.