![Mariano Rajoy and José María Aznar / EFE](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 9"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Meanwhile, Brussels maintains its position in favor of the "consolidation of the banking market" in Spain, according to EU sources told ARA. In this regard, the same sources assure that they "do not see any reason at present that could justify denying or blocking" BBVA's transaction against Sabadell. "We hope the Spanish government aligns itself with the decisions of the competition authorities," the same sources from the EU executive point out, who assure that "they are studying the compatibility of the Spanish government's actions with EU law." In any case, the European Commission will not make any decision until the steps taken by Pedro Sánchez's administration are known, which has one month to decide whether to impose more conditions on BBVA for reasons of general interest, reports Gerard Fageda .
The elephant in the room of every financial gathering
BBVA insists at the IESE on the merits of the takeover bid for Sabadell and affirms that the commitments assumed include the general interest.
Madrid"Well, we'll have to address the elephant in the room." This was how Juan Rivera, senior executive director of FTI Consulting, brought up BBVA's hostile takeover bid for Banc Sabadell. He did so while moderating the speech by the Basque bank's general manager in Spain, Peio Belausteguigoitia, during the twentieth edition of the Financial Meeting organized by the Iese business school in Madrid. The speakers, the position, and the audience attending the event, which began this Tuesday—and will continue on Wednesday—fully justify Rivera's expression, especially considering that the operation already marked the focus of that financial gathering at last year's edition.
"We launched it 13 months ago," Belausteguigoitia himself recalled. A timeline that BBVA hadn't anticipated at the time. "What if we have to wait another year for VAR to decide?" Rivera asked, drawing a football analogy—an omnipresent subject at these events—between the decisions of the referee (the regulatory bodies) and this video assistant (the Spanish government).
Rivera's question went unanswered, although the moderator wasn't looking for one either. Pedro Sánchez's administration has 30 calendar days (until June 27) to comment on the takeover bid and decide whether to add more conditions for reasons of general interest to the Basque bank. Aware of this, the CEO of BBVA in Spain didn't hesitate to defend the commitments he has already agreed to with the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC). The supervisory body unanimously greenlit the takeover bid after imposing a series of temporary conditions linked, of course, to competition, the only matter on which it can comment.
Conditions of operation
In BBVA's eyes, however, the required conditions go beyond this area and already include reasons of general interest, which are the ones the Spanish government can study: "The commitments BBVA has made go beyond competition. They touch on aspects of territorial cohesion, access to credit for SMEs and the self-employed, financial inclusion, and protection of vulnerable customers." He delivered this message to an auditorium full of prospective students aspiring to senior positions, likely in the banking sector, given the theme of the conference. However, none of these students has the power to resolve the mystery of whether the takeover bid will come with more conditions, which falls to Pedro Sánchez's executive. Unlike the elephant in the room, the final recipient of that message was out of the room.
"The [integration] operation allows the resulting entity to be a better financial institution," the BBVA executive boasted before concluding his speech. His optimism has nothing to do with the quote chosen by Rivera to start his speech: "As Jaime Echegoyen [former president of Sareb] said: "Run away from banking, because it is the worst business in the world."
