You are Irene Casado Ruiz, and today, Monday 11 January 2027, you open branch 0417 of Banco Vereda, in the Parquesol district of Valladolid, as its director for the first time. This very week, before the spring campaign begins, you must decide how your team will sell mortgages this year.
The situation
Until December you were a personal-banking adviser, and you closed 2026 at the top of the zone's sales ranking. Now you answer for the whole branch to Gonzalo Miera, the zone director, and for the first time you will be measured on a profit and loss account rather than on units sold. On the desk are two documents that do not tell the same story.
The first is the 2027 target sheet, signed by Miera: €10 million of new mortgages, €1.2 million of consumer credit, 60 insurance policies and €3 million of funds. The second is the branch's P&L: about 3,900 active customers, a mortgage book of about €50 million and €71 million of deposits. In 2026 the branch contributed €1,037,000 to the bank, mostly from what it already had: €425,000 of margin on the mortgage book and €852,000 of margin on deposits.
The bank's treasury charges the branch for every euro lent and credits it for every euro deposited at an internal transfer price. The bank's rate table puts mortgages 0.90 points above that price. Customers who already have a mortgage with the branch see the same rates in the window as new ones, and the usual affordability limit is that the monthly payment must not exceed 35% of income.
Your team is five people: Tomás Pardo, SME manager; Nuria Blanco and Álvaro Sanz, retail managers; Carmen Lobo, an accredited investment adviser; and Pilar Recio, on the counter. Mid-morning, Tomás puts his head round the door: "Miera called. He wants to know how many mortgages we will sign in the first quarter."