Aside from the assessments of the ECB and the banking authorities, BBVA recognizes in its proposal that the merger with Sabadell should have, if successful, the approval of the Ministry of Economy and the Competition authority, the CNMC. . “It would be subject to obtaining authorizations or non-opposition,” he states when referring to both, before expressing his confidence in passing the analysis “satisfactorily in a timely manner.”
Although the approval of Competition is always necessary in this type of operations, the fact that there are fewer and fewer entities left makes this analysis by the supervisors more demanding. From the fifty entities before the 2008 crisis it would drop to just eight: Santander, CaixaBank, BBVA-Sabadell, Bankinter, Unicaja, BBK, Abanca and Ibercaja. In Catalonia, for example, it would go from 10 savings banks and a bank with operational headquarters in the community to just one entity.
Sources from the Ministry of Economy warned this Wednesday that, in the merger process between BBVA and Sabadell, the principle of competition must be respected and the progress made in recent years in terms of “financial inclusion” must be maintained. The Minister of Economy himself, Carlos Body, alluded on Tuesday, when BBVA’s intentions became known, to the importance of preserving a “competitive” environment in banking.
The UGT union warned that “the Government and Competition will have to highly value the operation given the impact it will have on employment and citizens.” BBVA has 1,881 offices in Spain and Sabadell has 1,171. In the merger of CaixaBank and Bankia, 70% of the branches of the absorbed entity were closed. Globally, one in four closed. Obviously the data cannot be extrapolated but if those same percentages were the ones that occurred in this operation, around 800 would have to be closed.
In recent months, the Generalitat has launched several initiatives to bring banking services to small municipalities, since since the restructuring of the sector in some towns they had been left without an office or even an ATM. Financial exclusion is one of the problems that have arisen in recent years after the closure of branches and mergers of entities.
