The financial storm experienced in March with the bankruptcy of some small banks in the USA and the collapse of Credit Suisse force the launch of a European deposit guarantee fund to be accelerated. It was one of the claims made by the president of CaixaBank, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, during the colloquium “Present and future of banking: reflections on a changing world”, held yesterday at the XXXVIII Meeting of the Circle of Economy
He shared a table with Fernando Restoy, bank manager of the BIS central banks. “The issue of completing the banking union is obvious”, agreed Restoy. In his opinion, “it is necessary to denationalize” the banking risk to avoid that the guarantee of deposits “depends on each country and on the economic vicissitudes that country may go through”, he added.
The economist also wanted to emphasize that the movements of deposits seen in the US, where through new technologies there was a rapid flight of client resources, means a structural change that needs to be analyzed. Although he does not believe that it is necessary to apply regulatory changes for the time being, he does believe that it is essential to analyze the effects of the new systems. With a simple mobile phone, deposits can be transferred from one institution to another in a matter of seconds.
In the colloquium, which was moderated by Núria Mas, professor at IESE, José Viñals, president of the Standard Chartered bank, also participated. According to the former IMF advisor, one of the challenges of the future will be the impact of so-called big tech companies such as Apple or Alibaba on financial services. “Big tech has undoubted advantages, but I think we can compete and collaborate, as has happened with Apple and Goldman Sachs”, he added.
Goirigozarri wanted to assess the role of traditional banking and the options it has to look at big tech with an attitude of equality. “When these issues are discussed, it seems that it is taken for granted that the traditional banks are in a battle that they will lose, and I do not agree with that,” said the president of CaixaBank. And he remembered that years ago it seemed that the fs would keep the whole business, and that has not been the case. “The bank has a huge customer base”, he recalled.
Viñals pointed out that “it is important to learn lessons from what happened in March”. But at the same time – he said – “what has worked well” must be maintained and not changed. “I am optimistic about the future of banking”, he said.
