Link Securities | The Spanish National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) board, which met last Monday, has asked BBVA to make new commitments in its takeover bid for Banco Sabadell, mainly in relation to the SME business and financial inclusion issues, according to Expansión newspaper.
The CNMC has suggested that BBVA extend the deadlines for the proposed measures on the SME business. The regulator’s experts believe that an 18-month extension of the conditions applied to customers is not enough, and are calling for longer deadlines, even up to 24 months. They believe that extending the deadlines would help to alleviate the market imbalance caused by the disappearance of Sabadell. The competition authority has also requested that access to ATMs and the maintenance of branches be extended among the commitments linked to financial inclusion. BBVA must decide whether to include the proposals in its commitments, negotiate them or reject them.
