Yesterday, the presidents of the main banks began their parade through the Ministry of Economy to maintain initial contact with Minister Carlos Body and share some of the issues that most affect the sector, including the banking tax and its recent extension.
The entities emphasize that the objective of the meetings is to initiate dialogue with a minister whom they consider knowledgeable about the banking sector and of a dialogue nature. They have already worked with him and hope that he can act as a counterweight to other sensitivities within the Government. Corporal coincided with the presidents of Santander and BBVA at the recent Davos meeting.
The main reason for complaint among the entities is the recent extension of the extraordinary banking tax to 2024 and the possibility that the tax, which last year subtracted more than 1,000 million from their profits, becomes permanent. The PSOE agreement with Sumar includes its reformulation to be able to apply it beyond the extraordinary circumstances of the war in Ukraine.
Banks also want to value their contribution to the financing of sustainable projects, compared to energy companies, which have managed to soften the tax thanks to their environmental investments.
The round of contacts began 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 in the morning, 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 Economía they emphasize that meetings with the banks are approached “with a spirit of listening and commitment to dialogue in the legislature.” There are “many topics of interest”, starting with the Financial Client Defense Authority, which the Government wants to recover quickly after being stranded 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 shortly, while accelerating the request for reports, which will speed up the parliamentary process. The idea is that the norm reaches the Cortes as a bill and without relevant changes with respect to the previous text. In its already known formulation, the law creating the Financial Client Ombudsman had the support of the PP after several of its amendments were admitted.
Body also wants to take the opportunity to seek greater 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 on better conditions.
The Government considers that banks play an important role in channeling credits to companies, which in turn complain of the entities’ lack of interest 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 25.6 billion euros. Another 44.6 billion are planned in 2025 and 44.3 billion in 2026.
The meetings with the bank are also held shortly before the start of the presentation of the annual results. The entities themselves recognize that part of their effort also consists of conveying the message that, despite the increase in profits, their average profitability in recent years, with negative interest rates, has been low. For now, between this week and next they will report profits that together, and according to analyst estimates, will be around 26 billion euros and will be a record.
