The wave of international financial deregulation promoted by the big banks and the US administration – which advocates weakening regulators, reduced capital requirements and stress tests – finds Spain with its own previous financial problems: a financial system set up according to bad practices and the least solvent banks in Europe.
An indicator of bad banking practices is the exorbitant number of complaints that citizens file with the entities themselves. In 2024, 2,086,706 claims were filed, an intolerable figure in itself, which more than doubles the 828,213 filed in 2020, according to the Bank of Spain claims report.
Customer dissatisfaction was evident from the manner in which their complaints were resolved, with only 40% favoring the complainant. In the same year, complaints to the Bank of Spain reached a record number, 56,099, 69% more than the previous year. What is significant is that the entities failed to comply with 21% of the supervisor’s resolutions, forcing customers to go to court, as Asufin pointed out.
The lower solvency of Spanish banks has been recognized by the European Banking Authority, which estimates the capital ratio of Spanish banks at 13.18%, the lowest in Europe, where 17 countries exceed 17%.
The concern of the Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escriva, is significant: “We have confirmed that the profitability of the Spanish banking sector has improved in 2024, thanks to the fact that the increase in interest margin and commission income has been greater than that of costs and provisions. For their part, capital ratios remained stable, well exceeding regulatory requirements, but far from the European average.
The behavior of the entities has worried authorities for some time. The former governor, Pablo Hernández de Cos, commissioned an external assessment of the driving test from three experts: Stefan Ingves, Hanzo van Beusekom and Pedro Duarte Neves. In response to its recommendations, the Bank of Spain undertakes to “focus on possible harm caused to customers, compared to the previous, more corrective approach”. It will also disclose “the main sectoral risks identified from a behavioral point of view”. Relevant initiatives because the damage was very serious (expulsions, interest, commissions and abusive practices).
THE Supervisory memory of 2024 reveals that of the 939 employees performing supervisory functions, only 7% were dedicated to conduct problems and only one of the 145 supervisory actions corresponded to disciplinary files. In terms of sanctions, the supervisor is waiting for a legal report to consider increasing sanctions, vetoing certain products and resorting to the so-called mystery shopper or mystery shopping. This represents “the possibility of infiltrating entities to discover how they actually treat their customers,” in the words of Deputy Governor Soledad Núñez. Essential measures given the astonishing power of the banks and the extent of the damage.
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