Interview with our spokesperson, José Luis Martínez, on the challenges and opportunities in the banking sector in 2019, in Ejecutivos magazine.
What will be the main challenges for the sector this year?
Improving profitability and advancing digital transformation are the main challenges for financial institutions in 2019. Improving profitability helps strengthen the sector’s long-term stability and allows institutions to maintain the necessary investment effort, both to advance the digital transformation demanded by their clients and their own digitalization, all with the aim of providing the financial services and products required by families and businesses as efficiently as possible.
What threats are emerging?
In the new digital era, it is essential to ensure that all financial service providers are subject to the same supervision and regulation to guarantee adequate consumer protection and maintain the necessary financial stability. The latter also requires the European Central Bank to develop its already announced strategy of returning to monetary normality. Furthermore, banks need regulatory certainty and legal security to develop their medium and long-term business strategy.
What are the economic outlooks?
Forecasts from authorities and international organizations, as well as private institutions, agree in anticipating a moderation in the pace of economic growth in 2019. In this expected context of a soft slowdown, after several years of strong growth, it is necessary for authorities to maintain the momentum of structural reforms and economic adjustments in order to prolong the expansive phase of the economic cycle and increase its intensity.
