The banking course has begun with a meeting between the leaders of the country’s large entities and the first vice president of the Government, Nadia Calviño, just a few days after the still acting minister left the door open to extend the tax on the sector once the period initially planned for its validity ends.
Present at the meeting were the president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, the president of Caixabank, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, the president of Banco Sabadell, Josep Oliu, the CEO of Bankinter, Dolores Dancausa, the CEO of Ibercaja, Víctor Iglesias, the president of Grupo Cajamar, Luis Rodríguez, the president of Kutxabank, Antón Arriola and the president of Abanca, Juan Carlos Escotet, as well as the Secretary of State for Economy and Business Support, Gonzalo García , and the Secretary General of the Treasury, Carlos Body.
On the table, the official agenda of the meeting included the financial files that are being addressed by the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU in this second quarter of the year, as well as the economic situation. However, much of the interest of the meeting was also in the issues that were not on the agenda, including remuneration – the low remuneration, specifically – of clients’ deposits and savings. This situation was one of the issues that caused a certain clash at the beginning of the summer between Calviño herself and the country’s large banks, when the vice president urged the entities to increase client remuneration and even accused them of lack of competition. In this context, the Ministry of Economic Affairs points out in a statement distributed after the meeting that “the need to continue supporting economic growth has been pointed out, through a competitive credit offer and improvement in the remuneration of deposits.”
Regarding mortgages, the Ministry has also informed the entities about the work underway with the Bank of Spain “to analyze the application of the different mechanisms and codes of good practices available and continue improving the protection of families affected by the rise in mortgages”, without specifying what that means.
After the extension of the Code of Good Practices for mortgages that came into force at the beginning of the year, the Government has tried to address new extensions of these measures with the sector, something to which the entities themselves, for the moment, are opposed.
In addition to these issues, the appointment is marked by the words of the vice president a few days ago, when she assured that “to the extent that there are extraordinary benefits, it will have to be considered. But we will see how the economic situation, the budgetary situation, continues to evolve. and how the benefits of the banking sector continue to evolve,” Calviño explained in a recent interview.
The tax was created in an extraordinary and, initially, temporary manner by the Government of Pedro Sánchez to be applied to the results of 2022 and 2023. This should, therefore, be the second and last year of application, but if the notice of Calviño, could be extended further.
The tax is levied at 4.8% on the interest and commission margin of the activity in Spain of financial entities that in 2019 recorded a turnover of more than 800 million. The entities have already made the first payment, although all have later chosen to appeal the rate because they consider that it does not comply with the law.
