The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) suspects that Spanish banks will barely remunerate deposits after interest rate hikes in recent months. The president of the organization, Cani Fernández, expressed her surprise at the fact that there is no large entity that wants to gain market share with an offer of high remuneration for the liability. Fernández pointed out that the Commission does not have the power to control this situation unless there has been an agreement.
This was explained by the president of the CNMC at the seminar of the Association of Economic Information Journalists (APIE) at the Menéndez Pelayo International University in Santander. According to Fernández, there are competition bodies in other countries that can analyze practices of this type. “We don’t have a tool. The UK has it and Germany is discussing it,” he said. In his opinion, what may be happening is “tacit collusion”, which is when companies coordinate with each other without the need to agree. If all entities are unpaid, no one does. “By merely observing what others do, I have enough to make my decisions. This, in accordance with the jurisprudence of the European Union and the Spanish one, is said to adapt intelligently to the behavior of its powers”, ironized Fernández. To questions from the press, the president assured that she cannot reveal whether or not the sector is being investigated for this issue in accordance with the powers that the CNMC has.
Minutes later, at the same forum, the Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, stated that the body he presides over does not have the powers to investigate possible monopolistic practices, since this task falls to the CNMC. Regarding the non-remuneration of deposits, Hernández de Cos said that there is an “imperfect translation” of monetary policy, since the payment for deposits is not growing, but, in the case of Spain, what the entities charge for mortgages (the other side of interest rates) are also below the rest of Europe. “The banks that have transferred less of the increases in deposit rates have also transferred less of them to mortgages.” And in both cases the reason that the governor believes is behind it is “excess liquidity”.
On the mortgage market, the governor of the Bank of Spain declined to comment specifically on the proposal of the vice-president of Labor and candidate for Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, on a check of 1,000 euros for vulnerable mortgagees whose quota has been raised . But he did say that the code of good practice that was approved a few months ago to help mortgagees is fully in place and there is no need to reform it. “At this moment we should not try to anticipate” changes, he said before adding that, in any case, future support measures seeing past experiences should be “focused”.
The governor also referred to the improvement in GDP known yesterday, which is based on “foreign demand” after a drop in consumption.
During his speech, Cani Fernández also explained that the CNMC has just approved that from now on the Commission will be the one to determine the duration and scope of the ban on a company sanctioned by the body being contracted by a public administration .
The institution explained that since 2015, companies sanctioned for serious infringements of competition face the ban on contracting with the public sector. Until now, it had been chosen for the Ministry of Finance to determine the duration and scope of these prohibitions.
Now it will be the CNMC. The measure aims to increase legal certainty and enhance compliance programs and the culture of competition in companies”, explained the Commission.
Regarding the judicial decisions that have been annulled by the courts, Fernández asserted that 85% were confirmed in the Supreme Court. He did acknowledge that there was a period of time when all sanctions were lifted.
The president of the National Securities Market Commission, Rodrigo Buenaventura, also participated in the seminar yesterday, who called for the protection of independent directors, who “on too many occasions” have been the ones who “paid for the broken dishes” of shareholder conflicts.
