BIG Bank, an investment bank in Spain. What position do you have in Portugal right now and where do you plan to be in Spain in the coming months or years?
In Portugal we are a very consolidated bank. We have a 25 -year -old story, which we have recently fulfilled. Last year we started as a bank very focused on investment, in fact we were the first super investment -centered bank. In fact, we were the first bank that made available to the retail client the possibility of operating in stock stock shares many years ago. Now it is very normal, there are platforms and we are all super accustomed but 20 or 25 years ago it was not so easy to buy an action in seconds. From there we were expanding, we have branches in the main Portuguese cities and we are a very solid bank with high quality assets. One of our pillars is that we have a capital ratio of more than 30%, compared to 12% of the average of European banks.
In Spain we landed five years ago. The activity began in 2023 although it was in 2020 when we made available to the Spanish client an offer of very attractive deposits that we have been expanding. We are a savings and investment bank, we have the entire Brokerage offer, a very powerful platform for traders – from ETF, actions, future, options, derivatives, .. – and all tools related to investment funds, such as discretionary portfolio management with what we have a complete offer that we will expand according to the needs of the Spanish investor.
How are your customers and products distributed?
We have a very distributed customer. It is true that we have many clients who arrive at the bank through deposits, so there are profiles that are more conservative and that, in the investment part, perhaps they have a greater tendency to monetary funds or combined deposits, which combines a part in deposit with a very high profitability and a part in investment funds, among which the investor can choose. But we also have customers who are traders in the broker, who operate with derivatives and also do intra -field operations. We are currently seeing a lot of interest in ETFs and investment funds, which is a very comfortable vehicle that allows investment decisions and tax advantages to delegate.
ETFs are being highly demanded. Is the group of clients you have, seeing some concrete megatence that you like more?
This 2025 has been in the candlestick everything that has to do with the defense sector. In this sense, we have several ETFs that invest or replicate the industry with profitability above 30% at the end of the first quarter. In addition, we have many investors who prefer to access variable income through indexed ETFs and, also, in megato. This year, with what we have lived in the first quarter with Trump and tariffs, megaters with a longer term projection have been weakened but if we try to isolate everything that has happened with Trump and the volatility of the first months, we think that trends such as health, artificial intelligence, autonomous cars … You can find that opportunity.
Trump has been a great enemy for investment but has been a great ally for Trader. Traders are delighted and you are also offering very competitive commissions and tools …
If we go to this group of clients who are traders, indeed the year has not been able to give them more opportunities, more joys and adrenaline. We also have volatility ETF, which is an asset in itself. On the other hand we are seeing a lot of Spanish investor who has a stock portfolio that is usually further in the long term, which makes them look more at the custody commissions, which we do not even have as a market if not on behalf (2 euros per month). And in Spanish shares we have a 0.08% commission with a minimum of 5 euros, equivalent in 0.07%. We have very low commissions and this has been part of the strategy of relaunching our broker. We have very renewed the team with very experienced specialists, we have launched an investment investment club called Big Investor Club and we make a minimum event a month of issues that interest traders: how to operate with futures, how to make coverage … in derivatives, the commission is 3 euros per micro future, so we are the cheapest.
Is there a lot of difference between the Portuguese inverter and the Spanish at assets level, type of operation …?
The Portuguese investor, at least Banco Big, in the brokerage part is a fairly experienced and active investor. There we have a very large Research team, we make a semiannual outlook with very powerful experts that, in Portugal, give the client directly service, which has enough financial culture. In the asset or advisory management part, the client understands that there are wallets managed for different profiles and there is also an asset management team that is reviewing the wallets from time to time that is very connected to the Brokerage and Research equipment, so the main difference is that the Portuguese investor has a higher financial culture.
In an environment of high interest rates, what are the advice you can give to a saver?
If it is a real saver, my advice is that maybe you have to move a little because there are more opportunities in the world of investment. I understand that a saver does not do so overnight with what my advice is simply that it is reported because there are monetary funds that can give more than the deposits or investment funds of fixed income. For that, we put at your disposal experts in this service. On many occasions customers are not so well served by their suppliers and it is precisely the small saver that needs a family bank that, as a Big Bank, we attend to the people of you to you with all the training that needs in case there is a path without taking great risks to save from savers to products that give better profitability. I think it is good to stop or at least listen but the time has come to make decisions.
And to a saver who wants to be an investor or an investor who is opening all this short -term volatility, what advice would you give?
I think everything depends on knowledge. If you are an experienced investor, short -term volatility will generate many opportunities but you have to know how to manage the risk. Take advantage of opportunities to cover the wallet and not decapitalize. And for the not so short -term investor that perhaps has a portfolio of funds my advice is: 1) to have patience, because the long term demonstrates that the variable income is bullish or 2) rotate portfolio and manage the market moments.
What percentage should have a client who is willing to assume risk, funds, ETFs and actions individually for having?
It depends a lot on the client’s profile and here the deadline is fundamental. An investment is not the same at ten years, where that money is not going to be touched, to invest a year, it changes radically. Depending on each profile, there will be more in ETF or funds, it depends on tax needs. And for that you also need an expert.
What news do you have for 2025?
In the first quarter we have implemented several novelties that we had projected for this year, such as the Big Investor Club, downstream, relaunching the broker in the funds, Fund Advisor, Fund Mix … and in this second semester we are focused on the discretionary management of portfolios and events and formations that we will start doing throughout Spain. Right now we have done several in Madrid, we have an auditorium in our offices that is working very well but we have also done streaming and now we want to go the cities so that they know us and put us face throughout the national geography.