In the middle of the electoral campaign, the Government and the PP coincide in their opinion on the extraordinary tax on banks. At first it was temporary, for two years. However, both the Executive and the formation of Alberto Núñez Feijóo leave for next year the decision on whether it should be extended beyond 2024. That is, the PP does not question it for the two years of current validity (2022 and 2023) and, like the current government partners, it does not rule out that if it governs the tax may remain in force longer than approved. “We are seeing how the collection evolves and there will be a review of it to make decisions for the future,” advanced the first vice president of the Government, Nadia Calviño.
Hours later, the PP’s deputy secretary of Economy, Juan Bravo, lowered the optimism of the vice president regarding the country’s economic situation. On the other hand, his answers about what to do with the temporary rate to the bank did not stray far from Calviño’s position and indicated that the decision of her party has not been made. If Feijóo’s formation reaches the Executive, he will analyze next year “how is inflation and the economic situation” to decide if it extends beyond 2024.
Despite this closeness, he expressed his rejection of the way in which the tax has been designed. And he defended once again that it would have been more appropriate to create a fund, financed with the sector’s rate, which would be used to help those with mortgages in trouble.
On the other hand, regarding the electoral appointment, the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, did not elaborate on the possibility of a change of government or on the hypothetical entry of Vox into the Executive. “The electoral advance will allow there to be clarity in the political landscape before, but that does not change the picture of the opportunities we have,” he stressed.
Remuneration of savings
This debate downplayed the other major issue at the opening of the conference organized by the Association of Economic Information Journalists (APIE) and the Menéndez Pelayo International University, and sponsored by BBVA: the low remuneration of savings in Spain.
Entities are reluctant for now to be more generous. Although more and more voices are urging to do so: this Monday it was the turn of the First Vice President of the Government, Nadia Calviño, who urged banks to transfer the rise in rates to the profitability of deposits, not only to the cost of credit. And she did it with Carlos Torres, president of BBVA, sitting next to her. “I have no doubt that the Spanish banking sector has to start transmitting the rise in rates to Spanish savings,” Calviño snapped.
This is an issue that seems to have become entrenched to the point that the economic vice president announced that she will discuss it at the next meeting with the sector, scheduled for the end of the month. “We will also talk about the remuneration of deposits. It is evident that the banks have to remunerate the deposits of the citizens, ”she settled.
Calviño thus joins the organizations that have recommended that banks reward family savings. From the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, to the president of the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), Cani Fernández. Even the Bank of Spain, in an article collected in the Financial Stability Magazinepointed out a few weeks ago that the lower remuneration of deposits with respect to what occurs in Europe is mainly explained by the good liquidity position of the entities, although the lack of competition may also play a part.
The Spanish financial sector continues to lag behind in the profitability it offers to families compared to its peers in the Old Continent: in April national entities paid an average of 1.33% to households for new term deposits of up to year, well below the 2.27% recorded in the euro zone, according to the latest data published by the ECB. Where convergence has indeed been achieved, or at least it is very close, is in payment for company deposits: banks in Spain paid an average of 2.6% in April, bordering on the 2.79% that recorded the Eurozone.
Calviño’s message reached Torres, from BBVA, clearly. Although the top leader of the bank justified this commercial strategy of the bank by the abundant liquidity that the sector still treasures. “If there is excess liquidity, the dynamics will not change,” he warned. And he recalled that the entities are delaying this transfer of interest rate increases just as in the last decade the negative rates did not pass on to families.
Despite this, according to the president of BBVA, there are entities that reward savings, although only those that need to attract deposits. In this sense, the repayment of a large part of the TLTROs (long-term financing from the ECB, granted under very advantageous conditions) at the end of June will be key, a fact that will force the rest of the banks to make more efforts to obtain financing.
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