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banking sector

Spanish Banks coronacrisis

Ibex, Markets, Spanish economy 4th February 2021

Spain’s Big Banks Lose €5.55 Bn Due To Coronavirus; Santander Posts Losses In Its Annual Results For The First Time

Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Bankia, Sabadell and Bankinter posted combined losses of €5.55 Bn last year, with their accounts badly affected by the coronavirus, compared to the more than €13.5 Bn achieved in 2019. These negative figures are mainly due to the great losses suffered by Santander, €8.77 Bn, the first of its history, compared to the €6.51 Bn it earned in 2019. Santander’s losses came after increasing provisions for the covid-19 crisis and assuming an impairment of €12.6 Bn in the value of its subsidiaries in the UK, the US and Poland.

oliu torres

Ibex, Spanish economy 27th November 2020

Talks Between BBVA And Banco Sabadell About A Potential Merger Terminated Without Agreement

Renta 4 | The reasons for the cease of negotiations would be, on the one hand, the lack of agreement on the exchange equation and the price to be paid, and on the other, the distribution of power. The suggested retirement for Sabadell’s chairman Josep Oliú in exchange for the operation being paid for in cash would not be well received by the ECB, given the risk of BBVA’s chairman Carlos Torres being charged in relation with the Villarejo case. This could then leave the merged group without a chairman. So the ECB would have urged a joint presidency between Torres and Oliú.

negative rates2

European economy 26th November 2020

The Blunder Of Negative Interest Rates

Miguel Navascués | The depression and the drop in inflation -or even deflation- have led the central banks to try a disastrous experiment: negative interest rates. Even Christine Lagarde speaks of putting the reference interest rate at -2%. This has been a mistake for several reasons. It discourages the holding of liquid deposits (which logically yield zero or negative), but it does not make people anticipate consumption, if prices stagnate or fall.

Unicaja Liberbank

Ibex, Markets, Spanish economy 6th October 2020

Liberbank And Unicaja Resume Merger Talks To Create 5th Largest Spanish Bank By Assets

In February, Liberbank and Unicaja concluded possible merger contacts after failing to reach an agreement about the likely distribution of the shares of the new entity, but now the integration of both banks would give rise to the fifth lender in Spain in terms of asset volume, with €98.6 Bn (€56.7 Bn Unicaja and 41.95 Bn Liberbank). Net profit would reach €102 M in H1’20 (€61 M UNI and €41 M LBK). The new bank would have a network of 1,607 branches (1,028 UNI and 579 LBK) and 9,942 employees (6,274 UNI and 3,668 respectively). 

Spanish banks mergers

Spanish economy 28th September 2020

Spanish Bank M&A: Reaching The Next Level Of Efficiency Gains

Spanish banks have made drastic efforts since the financial crisis to improve efficiency. They were among the most active in Europe to adjust their branch networks. But while the number of branches has reduced in many countries, the workforce has not always followed the same pace of adjustment. For analysts at Scope Ratings, there is still room for efficiency gains, particularly as digitisation continues. “Transition in Spain can only accelerate, leaving room for consolidation”, they say.

Spanish Banks precious

Spanish economy 24th September 2020

Spanish Banks Lose €11.531 Bn In H1 2020

Spanish banks recorded aggregate attributed losses of 11.531 billion euros in the first half of 2020. This came in the wake of an effort in terms of provisions and write-offs to the tune of 26.518 million euros. Preparation for the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was behind this effort, according to the Spanish Banking Association (AEB).

Euro area growth: neither very fast nor particularly slow

European economy 11th September 2020

European Cross-Border Bank Mergers: Less Compelling After The Pandemic Than Before

EU agreement on a pandemic fund boosted market and regulators’ wishes to move towards cross-border consolidation among European banks- the ECB’s vice-president, Luis de Guindos, has already warned of the need for the sector to continue with the merger process. Scenarios have started to be built again about who should be merging with whom. But unity around the EU pandemic fund is not about banks, say analysts at Scope Ratings.

Eight Spanish banks brands amongst the 500 most valued worldwide

Ibex, Markets 3rd July 2020

Ibex Banks’ Capitalization Has Dropped 40% in the first semester 2020

The market capitalisation of Spain’s six leading banks has slumped by approximately 53.11 billion euros. All the lenders recorded declines in their share prices, which ranged from 39.3% for CaixaBank to 54.9% for Banco Sabadell. The combined market capitalization of the six banks at the end of the first half was 76.398 billion euros, compared to 129.509 billion end-2019.

Retail interest rates are high compared to other Eurozone's countries

Spanish economy 29th June 2020

The Bank Of Spain Will Keep The Counter-Cyclical Buffer At 0% Until It Returns To A Path Of Recovery

The Bank of Spain has decided to maintain the counter-cyclical capital buffer applicable to credit exposures in Spain at 0% during the third quarter of the year. It will probably also do the same in the coming quarters due to the current context of the coronavirus crisis as the severe macroeconomic and financial impact of the Covid-19 crisis require credit institutions to maintain the flow of financing to the real economy. The aim of the counter-cyclical capital buffer is to reinforce the solvency of the banking system in phases of excessive credit growth.