Torres (BBVA) justifies the lack of remuneration of deposits due to “excess” liquidity
SANTANDER, 19 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The First Vice President and Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, has assured that the bank “has to start” to transfer the rise in interest rates to citizens through the remuneration of deposits.
“I have no doubt that the Spanish banking sector has to start transmitting the rise in citizen rates”, he stated during the inauguration of the XL Seminar of the Association of Economic Information Journalists (Apie) that this week celebrated in Santander with the collaboration of the Menéndez Pelayo International University.
He has indicated that it will be one of the topics to be discussed at the next meeting that Calviño will hold with the banking associations on June 29. In it, the codes of good practices that employers have signed to promote the financial inclusion of the elderly and rural areas will be reviewed, as well as the measures to alleviate the impact of the rise in the Euribor on vulnerable families or those at risk of vulnerability.
He has stated that he will review the scope of application of these codes, the operation of these measures and will listen to “all points of view” on the remuneration of deposits.
Asked about the bank tax, he has defended that the bank “does not have any problem” to face it given the benefits it is registering, the dividend distributions announced and the context of “enormous liquidity” in which it operates. In addition, he has affirmed that it is a measure that allows the bank to contribute “adequately” to launching support programs for society in the face of high inflation, derived from the impact of the war in Ukraine, at the same time that they can perform its function of financing the economy “in a profitable manner”.
Regarding the proposal of the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, to make it definitive, eliminating its transitory nature, she has indicated that a review of this tax will be carried out -which also applies to income from the energy sector- – and an evaluation of their behavior in order to know how these taxes behave and make decisions in the future.
For his part, the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, has indicated that making this tax permanent would be “negative”, since it would “slow down” the circulatory system of the economy, such as that of bank financing, and would make it difficult for GDP to capita of Spain to converge with that of Europe.
Likewise, Torres, who has also participated in the inauguration, has insisted that the lack of remuneration of deposits is a consequence of the excess liquidity of the banking system. “This is a dynamic situation, as long as this excess liquidity persists, the situation will continue, and when it is absorbed, the dynamics will change,” he stated in this regard.
Thus, he has denied that it is due to a lack of competitiveness of the Spanish banking system. “Some entities are doing it, but those of us with excess liquidity are not,” he added.
