In 2023, Spanish banks made a record profit of around 39 billion euros before taxes, thanks to the sudden increase in interest rates set by the European Central Bank to combat inflation. This has put a strain on many families’ budgets. At the same time, banks have benefited from the interest offered by the Bank of Spain on their deposits, which increased from -0.5% to 4% in less than a year. Despite this, some groups argue that this is not enough and have demanded that the Bank of Spain led by Pablo Hernández de Cos reveal how much money was paid to each bank.
The Bank of Spain responded that this breakdown is subject to professional secrecy, an idea developed by its own leader during Congress. As a result, Yolanda Díaz’s parliamentary group announced that they would denounce the bank before the Administrative Court for not providing these details.
During his speech in Congress, Hernández de Cos did not mention the possible merger between BBVA and Sabadell but emphasized that it was a good time to pay attention to the optimal level of concentration in the Spanish banking sector. Carlos Martín asked about this level of concentration but most of his speech was about monetary policy and how banks were benefiting from it.
Martin asked Hernández de Cos about the transfer of 8 billion euros made by the Bank of Spain for depositing 250 billion euros from bank liquidity into savings accounts, which represents 65% of the profits earned by Spanish banks. Martin requested detailed information about this transfer. The official response from the Bank of Spain was that information disclosed by entities is subject to professional secrecy obligation.
After being denied access to detailed information, Sumar announced that they would denounce the Bank of Spain before Administrative Court for not providing information on how much profit banks had earned from their deposits. Accessing transparent and accurate information is crucial for effective supervision and analysis of economic and financial policies