María Abascal, Managing Director of AEB, highlighted today the strength of the Spanish banking sector in the current international financial market environment, marked by the collapse of the US banks Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and by UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse.
At the opening of the Banking Lab session on ‘Opportunities and risks in the non-bank financial sector’, Abascal outlined the strengths of Spanish banking, which place it in a good position to weather turbulence:
“We have strong, diversified, solid institutions that have been able to navigate an extraordinary decade of negative and zero interest rates and that now, as monetary policy returns to normal, are being strengthened by their results to meet the economic and social challenges ahead,” María Abascal stressed.
Regarding what is known as ‘shadow banking’, she explained that these activities are not a problem per se, as they complement banks’ intermediation role, but that excessive growth in these activities could affect financial stability. She therefore highlighted the efforts of the authorities to move forward with regulation and supervision of this segment of the financial system.
María Abascal also expressed support for Europe moving forward with the creation of a single deposit guarantee fund, an instrument that would complete the European Banking Union and provide greater certainty for deposit holders.
