MADRID, 18 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The first vice president and minister of Economy, Commerce and Business Support, Nadia Calviño, will meet this Monday starting at 12:00 p.m. with the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, the banking associations AEB, CECA and Unacc and associations of financial users and seniors to assess compliance with the Codes of Good Practices assumed by the sector.
The reform of the extraordinary banking tax will not be on the table, since the Government is not contemplating its modification “at this time”, according to sources from the Ministry of Economy told Europa Press.
The first vice president announced last Friday that in addition to the extraordinary tax on electricity companies, the Government would also review the banking tax taking into account that we are no longer facing the same interest rate scenario.
As Calviño detailed in an interview, it was time to see if “some adjustments had to be made or not” and to review the parameters in the current scenario.
However, the aforementioned sources have pointed out that this Monday’s meeting will focus on monitoring the Codes of Good Practices that affect three areas: rural financial inclusion, inclusion of the elderly and support for families with variable rate mortgage debt, for example. which will not address anything related to the banking tax, “whose modification is not contemplated by the Government at this time.”
The Executive wants to maintain the relief measures for debtors with variable rate mortgages and this will be one of the issues on which progress is intended at this Monday’s meeting.
“We are seeing with the banks expanding the Code of Good Practices for mortgage debtors to extend to next year the possibility of changing mortgages from variable rate to fixed rate, free of charge and also the early repayment of loans. This has been a relief measure that is having a great reception and that is very important and as the rate increase is still going to be noticeable in mortgages next year, we are going to extend that possibility of changing for free,” he explained a few days ago the vice president.
Calviño also pointed out that he will also talk with financial entities about the extension of ATMs and other cash access systems to all towns in Spain. “We are already above 90%, more than 250 towns have received or already have an ATM or other instrument and I am going to discuss all this with the banks and banking users,” he said.
Regarding the remuneration of deposits by financial entities, Calviño acknowledged that “it is improving and little by little the banks are beginning to remunerate.”
“We also notice it because the participation of retail clients in the purchase of Treasury bills is relatively decreasing, but we have closed the year with an extraordinary public debt campaign. A lower interest rate is being paid for Spanish debt than for German debt. in the short term. We have closed a debt campaign in which we have been able to issue 5,000 million euros less, in total 65,000 million euros in net terms,” he noted.
