Yesterday, Valencian political institutions and employers’ associations celebrated the decision of Banc de Sabadell not to accept BBVA’s offer to merge. The Catalan entity, whose headquarters are in Alicante, has become a benchmark in the Valencian financial system and its possible incorporation into the Basque bank threatened its permanence and presence in this autonomy. This was recognized by Carlos Mazón, who revealed yesterday that in recent days he had maintained many contacts concerned about the future of the operation.
The Valencian president recalled that from the first moment the BBVA offer became known “he had rejected it and publicly criticized it” because he understood that “it is not good for the Valencian Community.” “We need and we will continue to need and we will defend that the Spanish financial system is attached to the territory and, therefore, that the financial system of the Valencian Community has financial entities attached to the territory,” he warned.
Furthermore, he appreciated that “it has cost us a lot to be able to maintain this reality, also with the efforts of many people. I have the memory of the boxes, as everyone does, and Sabadell has been involved in the Valencian Community, especially in the province of Alicante, but throughout the Community.” Therefore, he defended that “we need financial entities attached to the territory and we are not going to defend any other position other than that of financial entities attached to the territory.”
Mazón defended the necessary “citizens’ ability to choose” and stressed his criticism that a single financial entity “remains in the Valencian Community or that two financial entities could take over almost 60% of the market is not good news for competition.” , it is not good news for the ability to choose and it is not good news for the logical and necessary alternative that we need as consumers.”
He also considered the protection of jobs to be essential “because this has to do with a bank that is stable, that is betting on the territory, that is betting on its culture, that is betting on the Valencian Community.” “Therefore, I am very happy that the Bank of Sabadell has rejected this issue and I do not agree with the forms, nor the moment, nor the proposal that has been made,” he concluded.
The president of the Valencian Business Confederation, CEV, Salvador Navarro, pointed out, for his part, that “what we need as businessmen and as citizens is for credit to flow, for there to be competition, and both circumstances are more feasible if there is no merger. ”. “We also value that the headquarters will be maintained in our territory, this is positive for Alicante and the rest of the Community,” he added.
For the leader of the Valencian employers’ association, the decision adopted by the board of directors of Banco Sabadell “is the best, although of course we respect the decisions that private companies can freely adopt.”
