One might think that 2020 was a slow-motion train crash divided into 365 scenes, but it was not exactly like that. It was certainly a very difficult year, but also a year of problems solved, hopes sustained, and seemingly insurmountable challenges overcome. This has been the case for the banking sector and for the Spanish Banking Association. The coronavirus crisis, so unusual and different from others experienced previously, gave our banks the opportunity to demonstrate the extent to which they were and are committed to the future of Spanish society, and how vital their contribution is to the proper functioning of the economy. Our institutions also showed that they are well prepared and effectively fulfil the role entrusted to them: financing households and businesses and developing agile and efficient payment systems. <\/p>\n
For many of us, all of this was already well known. We knew we had a strong banking system and that the long journey since the international financial crisis had left us with more robust and better-prepared institutions. But it is also true that that crisis resulted in a very distorted\u2014and, it must be said, tremendously negative\u2014collective perception of banks. Throughout these years we have had to contend with this costly burden in terms of social acceptance, and also economically. Our institutions have worked hard, and continue to do so, to improve that perception\u2014a process that is proving long and slow. For this ill\u2014as we have seen\u2014there is no miracle cure, because, as we said in last year\u2019s Annual Report, banks doing their work well in the interests of their customers is the best way, if not the only way, to win this battle. <\/p>\n
And that quiet work, behind which lies the daily effort of thousands of banking employees and executives, is what has been seen with complete clarity during the health crisis that is battering the planet. The pandemic has given Spanish society the opportunity to rise to the challenge, and that is precisely what the banking sector has done\u2014to an extent that still surprises us. <\/p>\n