The presidents of the main banks started yesterday their parade through the Ministry of Economy to maintain a first contact with the Minister Carlos Cuerpo and transfer some of the issues that most affect the sector, including the banking tax and its recent extension
The entities emphasize that the aim of the meetings is to initiate dialogue with a minister they consider knowledgeable about the banking sector and of a dialogic nature. They have already worked with him and hope that he can act as a counterweight to other sensitivities within the Government. Cuerpo met with the presidents of Santander and BBVA at the recent meeting in Davos.
The main reason for complaint among the entities is the recent extension of the extraordinary tax on banking until 2024 and the possibility that the levy, which last year subtracted more than 1,000 million from their profits, will become permanent. The PSOE agreement with Sumar includes reformulating it so that it can be applied beyond the extraordinary circumstances of the war in Ukraine.
The banks also want to assert their contribution to the financing of sustainable projects, in front of the energy companies, which have managed to soften the tax thanks to making environmental investments.
The round of contacts started yesterday with the presidents of CaixaBank, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri; from BBVA, Carlos Torres, and from Kutxabank, Antón Arriola. The meeting with Ana Botín, from Santander, takes place today, at 8 am, and later there will be meetings with Josep Oliu, from Sabadell, and with Manuel Azuaga, from Unicaja. Next week it will be the turn of Dolores Dancausa, non-executive president of Bankinter.
The round of contacts with the banks is part of an intense agenda in which the minister is also meeting with representatives of international organizations, auditors and political parties. He will even have the opportunity to meet tomorrow with his predecessor in office, Nadia Calviño, now president of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
From the Ministry of Economy they emphasize that the meetings with the bank are approached “with a spirit of listening and a commitment to dialogue in the legislature”. There are “many topics of interest”, starting with the Financial Client Protection Authority, which the Government wants to recover quickly after it was stuck in the Senate in the previous legislature.
The Council of Ministers agreed yesterday to urgently process the new law. It has not yet approved it, but it will do so very soon, while speeding up the request for reports, which will speed up the parliamentary process. The idea is that the rule reaches the Courts as a bill and without relevant changes compared to the previous text. In its already known formulation, the law on the creation of the Financial Client Ombudsman had the support of the PP after some of its amendments were accepted.
Cuerpo also wants to take the opportunity to seek more involvement from banks in the distribution of Next Generation funds. This year, the second phase of the Recovery Plan is being launched, in which twelve funds will be used to distribute loans under better conditions.
The Central Government considers that the banks play an important role in that they channel credits to companies, which in turn complain about the lack of interest from the entities in distributing them.
Once the addendum to the recovery plan has been approved, what is at stake is the distribution this year, between transfers and loans, of up to 25,600 million euros. Another 44.6 billion is expected in 2025 and 44.3 billion in 2026.
The meetings with the bank, moreover, take place shortly before the start of the presentation of the annual results. The same entities recognize that part of their effort also consists in conveying the message that, despite the increase in profit, their average profitability in recent years, with negative interest rates, has been low. At the moment, between this week and next they will be reporting profits that, according to analysts’ estimates, will be around 26,000 million euros and will be a record.
