The First Vice-President of the Central Government, Nadia Calviño, yesterday urged Spanish banks to remunerate their customers’ deposits so that they can benefit from the rise in interest rates in Europe. The president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, who shared a table with the vice-president at the inauguration of the seminar of the Association of Economic Information Journalists (APIE) at the Menéndez Pelayo International University, in Santander, replied that the remuneration does not increase for the “high liquidity” of the banks. From the PP, the head of the economy of the party, Juan Bravo, who intervened in the afternoon, was convinced that very soon the banks will start remunerating the deposits.
During the colloquium, the vice-president insisted on the suitability of the temporary tax on banking, which, in her opinion, has not prevented the sector from being able to continue granting credits as it has been until now. “With the profits reported by the bank, they have no problem paying it and continuing to channel the credit”, pointed out Calviño. Instead, Torres reiterated his speech about the inappropriate part of the tax because it can take away the flow of credit.
On the possibility of making the tax permanent, as promised by the Minister of Labor and candidate for Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, Calviño stated that “a review and an evaluation is planned to make future decisions”. In the afternoon, Bravo denied that the PP will remove it if it wins the elections on 23-J and asked to wait until 2024 to analyze whether to continue with the tax or not.
During her speech, the vice-president confronted Spain’s good economic results. “Over the last five years, the balance sheet is clearly positive because we have responded well collectively to the most urgent and to the challenges we have faced without losing sight of the most important”, he added before recalling that entities such as BBVA or the The Bank of Spain has revised upward the economic forecasts and “they are above those of the central government”. Regarding a possible correction of these estimates, Calviño ruled out an update of the macro picture.
When asked about the Bank of Spain’s warning about Spain’s divergence with Europe in GDP per inhabitant, Calviño assured that this process in recent years is the fault of the pandemic.
On the situation of the financial system, Carlos Torres emphasized the “strength of European banking” and pointed out that “at times like this of relative tranquility of the solvency of the sector, the banking union must be completed”.
After the opening session, the president of the Financial Stability Institute, Fernando Restoy, urged the creation of a European deposit guarantee fund because not having one, he said, is “a huge weakness” in the sector. Calviño also affirmed that “it is fundamental” to advance the banking union in Europe.
Restoy assured that in Europe there is a “structural problem”, which is the difficulty of financial institutions to raise capital. In his opinion, it is due to the fact that “there are too many banks” and their “very low profitability”. On Spain, he said he felt “quite comfortable” with the size of the sector in Spain.
