{"id":38693,"date":"2012-12-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/summary-of-the-aeb-secretary-generals-address\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:42:33","slug":"summary-of-the-aeb-secretary-generals-address","status":"publish","type":"notas-de-prensa","link":"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/en\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/summary-of-the-aeb-secretary-generals-address\/","title":{"rendered":"Summary of the speech by the Secretary General of the AEB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fiscal year 2012 has been the year of asset clean-up, capitalization, and the beginning of the <\/strong>definitive restructuring of the Spanish banking system<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spanish banks have provisioned a large part of the <\/strong>high regulatory clean-up of foreclosed assets and real estate loans <\/strong>required for the current fiscal year against their income statements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our entities safeguard depositors’ savings, do not need to <\/strong>request public capital aid, and will thus be able to, in sum, contribute to <\/strong>financing the recovery of the Spanish economy<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is necessary to undertake the structural measures required to enable <\/strong>economic growth as soon as possible, reduce the high unemployment rate, and <\/strong>improve social prospects<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spanish authorities are implementing profound structural reforms \u2013 labor, budgetary, fiscal, and financial \u2013 to help correct the macroeconomic imbalances accumulated by our economy as soon as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Secretary General of the AEB, Mr. Pedro Pablo Villasante, characterized fiscal year
\n2012 “as the year of asset clean-up, capitalization, and the beginning of the
\ndefinitive restructuring of the Spanish banking system.” A year in which, as he explained, Spanish
\nbanks are undertaking a kind of extraordinary regularization in
\ncompliance with the requirements of Royal Decree-Law 2\/2012 and Law 8\/2012, thus completing the
\nclean-up of their foreclosed assets and real estate loans. <\/p>\n

This extraordinary effort has been reflected in the results of Spanish banking
\ngroups, which decreased by 64% in the first nine months of the year. Mr. Pedro
\nPablo Villasante attributed this significant decrease, on the one hand, to the fact that, as of
\nSeptember 2012, Spanish banks had already provisioned a large part of the high
\nregulatory clean-up of foreclosed assets and real estate loans
\nrequired for the current fiscal year against their income statements, and on the other hand, to the fact that banking
\nactivity continues to develop in a weak economic environment, once again under economic
\ncontraction (double recession) and in very unfavorable financial circumstances. <\/p>\n

Given the difficulty of the economic and financial situation in which both
\nSpain and other Eurozone countries find themselves, the AEB Secretary General believes that
\n“it is necessary to undertake the structural measures required to enable economic
\ngrowth as soon as possible, reduce the high unemployment rate, and improve
\nsocial prospects.”<\/p>\n

In his opinion, the Spanish authorities are adopting demanding and profound structural
\nreforms \u2013 labor, budgetary, fiscal, and financial \u2013 to help correct as soon
\nas possible the macroeconomic imbalances accumulated by our economy, such as
\nthe bloated fiscal deficit, the high dependence on external financing, the
\nrecapitalization and restructuring of some former savings banks, as well as to
\nachieve the necessary improvement in competitiveness.<\/p>\n

For their part, the banks of the Spanish Banking Association maintain their commitment
\nto the Spanish economy, which, in their case, is concretized in maintaining adequate risk
\nmanagement of their banking activity and in the effort to preserve their economic
\nand financial situation. “In this way, our entities safeguard depositors’
\nsavings, do not need to request public capital aid, and will be able to, in sum,
\ncontribute to financing the recovery of the Spanish economy.” <\/p>\n

Mr. Villasante highlighted the effort Spanish banks are making, in these
\ndifficult economic and financial circumstances, to strengthen their balance sheets and comply
\nwith the authorities’ requirements to increase the clean-up of their
\nassets and, at the same time, higher quality own funds. All of this, through their
\nown means and without requiring public aid. <\/p>\n

He reported that, as of September 30, 2012, the capitalization level of Spanish banking groups remains well above the minimum requirement of 8%, with a
\nBIS ratio of 12.87%, reflecting an excess of own funds over the minimum
\nnecessary of 53,562 million euros. The highest quality part of the solvency ratio,
\nCore Capital, is 10.46%, 131 basis points higher than a year earlier. <\/p>\n

This intense effort, according to Mr. Pedro Pablo Villasante, has also been reflected in the
\narea of provisions. From 2007 to September 2012, the provisions
\nmade against the consolidated income statement of Spanish banks have
\nreached an accumulated amount of 125,581 million euros, 41,761 million more
\nthan the consolidated attributable profit for that period, and has meant, in terms
\nof average total assets, that the annual clean-up level is more than twice
\nthe amount allocated to clean-ups before the crisis. <\/p>\n

Finally, he referred to the recent European Council agreement for the ECB to
\nbecome the supervisor of European banks. In this regard, he noted that the AEB
\nmember banks unreservedly support the Banking Union project, of which the
\ndesignation of the ECB as the single supervisor of the Eurozone constitutes the first
\nessential step to overcome the perverse spiral existing between banking
\ndebt and sovereign debt which, in addition to prolonging the climate of financial
\nuncertainty, is delaying the exit from the current crisis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Secretary General of the AEB, Mr. Pedro Pablo Villasante, characterized fiscal year 2012 “as the year of asset clean-up, capitalization, and the beginning of the definitive restructuring of the Spanish banking system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","etiquetas-prensa":[],"class_list":["post-38693","notas-de-prensa","type-notas-de-prensa","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSummary of the speech by the Secretary General of the AEB - Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Banca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/en\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/summary-of-the-aeb-secretary-generals-address\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summary of the speech by the Secretary General of the AEB - Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Banca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Secretary General of the AEB, Mr. Pedro Pablo Villasante, characterized fiscal year 2012 "as the year of asset clean-up, capitalization, and the beginning of the definitive restructuring of the Spanish banking system."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/en\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/summary-of-the-aeb-secretary-generals-address\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Banca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-09T07:42:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aebanca\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aebanca.es\\\/en\\\/actualidad\\\/notas-de-prensa\\\/summary-of-the-aeb-secretary-generals-address\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aebanca.es\\\/en\\\/actualidad\\\/notas-de-prensa\\\/summary-of-the-aeb-secretary-generals-address\\\/\",\"name\":\"Summary of the speech by the Secretary General of the AEB - 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