The Sumar parliamentary group wants to propose the limitation of dividends to banks in the face of the “obscene” extraordinary profits obtained by financial entities in the last year – it estimates that 39,000 million euros – as a formula to redirect those revenues to compensate the families and thus increase their solvency.
This was detailed this Wednesday by Sumar’s economic spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies, Carlos Martín Urriza, who recalled that the big banks set a new profit record in 2023 – 22% more than the previous year – thanks to the rate rise.
The deputy attributes 65% of these benefits to the transfers made by the Bank of Spain (BE) in remuneration of the deposit facility: a transfer that Sumar considers “not necessary” because, in addition, it cuts public income. According to him, the BE had a zero profit last year when it used to have around 2,000 million.
Martín has held meetings with the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, and with the Secretary General of the Treasury, Paula Conthe, to address a proposal that he also conveyed yesterday to the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos.
That is why Martín has already proposed to the Bank of Spain that it force the capital buffers of the banks to be raised, which he said “are the lowest in the EU”, so that they increase their solvency as well as the need for their public accounts clearly reflect what money goes to each entity.
Martín has also referred to the temporary tax on financial entities. And, assuming that this tax will become permanent, he suggests increasing it and dedicating the collection to correct the “high financial exclusion of the country”, that is, the closure of many bank branches in the rural world and also in cities.
