Monte dei Paschi de Siena (MPS), the world's oldest bank, has reappeared with full force in the struggle within the Italian banking sector. After receiving the go-ahead from its board of directors, the Tuscan entity presented a 34 billion euro offer this Friday to buy the Italian banks BPM and Banca Generali.

The large Spanish banking sector continues to defend its actions in the mortgage market despite the investigation opened in June by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). According to financial sources consulted by the Efe agency, the arguments put forward by the supervisory body have "very little basis" and recall that the Competition Commission already dismissed a complaint against the four major state banks – Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, and Banco Sabadell – for the low profitability of their client deposits.

BBVA continues to grow alone after having turned the page on the failed takeover bid about Banco Sabadell. The entity registered a record profit of 6,051 million euros during the first half of 2026, 10% more than the same period last year at constant exchange rates, that is, eliminating the effects of currency devaluation or appreciation. According to the bank, the improvement is due to the evolution of recurring income, driven mainly by a 17.7% increase in lending.

New semester of green numbers for CaixaBank, which has closed the first six months of 2026 with a net profit of 3,203 million euros, 8.5% more than in the same period last year. This was detailed this Wednesday by the company's CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, during the presentation of the entity's results held in Valencia.

During 2025, Catalans filed 4,798 complaints with the Bank of Spain. The figure – representing 15.4% of the total claims made in the State – is 55% lower than the claims made a year earlier, in 2024. This sharp decrease returns the statistics to their usual pace: as the Bank of Spain explained this Tuesday, 2024 was a year of "extraordinary" activity due to the Supreme Court's ruling on undue mortgage expenses.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has urged the main financial institutions in the euro area to present "by October 31, 2026" a comprehensive action plan with concrete measures to address cybersecurity threats related to cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) models, such as Mythos, developed by Anthropic.

Singular Bank, the financial entity specialized in private banking, has incorporated the Dutch bank ING and the Mexican investment group Actinver as shareholders, in addition to the manager ProA Capital and numerous family offices. With these incorporations, the bank managed by Javier Marín begins a new phase of growth and expansion. The new shareholders have purchased all the shares that until now were owned by Warburg Pincus. Once the sale of shares and the capital increase have been completed, the Dutch bank ING will become the main shareholder, with a 40% stake. The rest of the capital is distributed as follows: the bank's management team and employees, 15.5% (and they will collectively become the second largest shareholder); ProA Capital, 15%; the Mexican financial entity Actinver, 8%, and the different family offices will add up to 21.5%.

The banking sector, which is undergoing a transformation due to digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI), experienced a period of office closures and staff reductions starting from the financial crisis of 2008. From the 45,000 branches, with a ratio of 99.02 per 100,000 inhabitants, that existed in Spain that year, it has gone down to around 17,000 currently, with a ratio of 35.03, a 65% drop, despite population growth. And in Catalonia, the process has been similar, going from over 8,000 physical branches in 2008 and a proportion of 110.64 per 100,000 inhabitants, to 25.66, with a total of 2,085 branches, an even greater decrease, of more than 76%. From the 45,000 branches, with a ratio of 99.02 per 100,000 inhabitants, that existed in Spain that year, it has gone down to around 17,000 currently, with a ratio of 35.03, a 65% drop, despite population growth. And in Catalonia, the process has been similar, going from over 8,000 physical branches in 2008 and a proportion of 110.64 per 100,000 inhabitants, to 25.66, with a total of 2,085 branches, an even greater decrease, of more than 76%.

In the Anglo-Saxon language it is common for the names of major commercial brands to become verbs and become part of popular slang, even being accepted as dictionary definitions. Googling or tweeting are just two examples of a practice much less common in Romance languages. But a few years ago, a concept has been fully integrated into the daily lives of most Catalans. Doing a Bizum is an expression that already sounds familiar and refers to a project that academics and financial sector sources consider an "exceptional" success story in the Spanish banking sector.

Until the return of the headquarters of Banc Sabadell last year, Caixa Guissona was the second Catalan financial entity, surpassed only by Caixa Enginyers. Today it is the third, with a classic banking model, which keeps and lends money and with little weight of services and, therefore, of commissions. With a network of five offices, results that grew by 23% last year, to 19.3 million euros; the cooperative of the BonÀrea Agrupa group has its sights set on Girona, the only province where they are not present, explains the general director, Martí Bravo (Sant Cugat del Vallès, 1992), who works at the entity, where he started as an office employee, 11 years ago.

A few days ago it was the auditorium of the Iese business school, and this Wednesday it was the turn of one of the main halls of the Palace of the Dukes of Santoña, headquarters of the Madrid Chamber of Commerce. These have been the two venues in the Spanish capital where Marc Armengol has debuted as CEO of Banco Sabadell. In the first forum, among the audience there were mostly students of finance or business management, while in the second, Madrid businessmen and investors took center stage, especially those linked to the Madrid Chamber of Commerce. And Armengol was aware of this. When Ángel Asensio, president of the Madrid organization, asked him about the role of the Spanish capital, the CEO of the Vallesana entity did not hesitate to praise its economic dynamism: "Madrid is the economy [of the State] that stands out the most". He also pointed to the audience listening to him, and in particular the Chamber of Commerce, as responsible for this feat: "Congratulations on the work you do. It is essential and explains the dynamism of the [Madrid] economy," said Armengol.

The National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) has decided to open disciplinary proceedings against six large banks for alleged anti-competitive practices. These are the six entities listed on the Ibex: Bankinter, Banco Santander, BBVA, Unicaja, CaixaBank, and Banc Sabadell. The body chaired by Cani Fernández, whose six-year non-renewable term ends this Tuesday, is investigating whether these entities engaged in anti-competitive practices related to mortgage policy and, more specifically, the so-called mortgage war, contrary to Article 1 of the competition defense law and Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The members of Caixa Enginyers have approved the annual accounts of the credit cooperative for 2025, when it achieved a record result of 26.5 million euros, 11% more than in 2024. During the celebration of its Ordinary General Assembly, the members gave the green light to results that include a business volume of 9,269 million euros, which represents an increase of 8% compared to 2024, the entity reported this Tuesday in a statement.

The Italian bank Mediolanum landed in Spain in 2000 with the purchase of Fibanc – an entity founded by businessman Carles Tusquets – with the idea of replicating its model in the transalpine country, in operation since 1982. At the beginning of the new century, Spanish entities were struggling to expand their network of offices to reach every corner of the country: having branches was synonymous with success. Mediolanum, on the other hand, had for years been betting on a different system that revolved around the figure of what is called a family banker, financial advisors who offer to visit the client at their home and with whom they maintain constant contact. And far from the more traditional business of banks – where a good part of the clients have their immobile assets in bank accounts – these advisors move money and place it in investment funds, pension plans, or life insurance, among others.

The tsunami that caused the 2008 financial crisis made hundreds of bank branches disappear and left many Catalan municipalities without these services. As a consequence of this process, in 2021 there were 502 Catalan towns with no access to banking services, 53% of the total, with a population of over 305,000 inhabitants, 3.94% of the total. At the end of 2024 – the latest available data – there were 38 municipalities, 4% of the total, with a population of 11,381 people, 0.14% of the total. The number of municipalities with no such services has been reduced by 92% in this period.

Spain's largest banks are once again talking about the banking business at financial conclaves. It's not that they haven't talked about it until now, but there was an "elephant in the room" that overshadowed the media spotlight: BBVA's hostile takeover bid for Banco Sabadell. Even though senior executives in the financial sector strived to explain how the business worked, headlines in the media didn't move beyond this framework – it also helped that at these meetings no one hesitated to ask about the operation. But since the majority of Sabadell's shareholders decided not to accept BBVA's offer, that chapter is now history, and the sector's conclaves are witnessing it, as attendees at the first day of the financial forum organized annually by the Iese business school in Madrid were able to verify this Wednesday. The meeting ends tomorrow, Thursday, and will feature the main figures of Spanish banking, but also other players in the sector.

Spanish banking has opted en masse for private digital money (stablecoin) linked to the euro. Banc Sabadell, Bankinter, Abanca, Kutxabank and Cecabank have joined the private consortium Qivalis, based in the Netherlands, as reported by ARA, and which also includes CaixaBank and BBVA. In this way, Spanish banking is the one with the most representatives in this society that began at the end of last year with 10 financial entities, which later increased to 12 and now number 37, with a presence in 15 countries.

The concern in the United States financial industry about the viability of some private credit investment funds has led Wall Street's major banks to bet on financial instruments that either cover losses in case of fund failure or allow for downside speculation. Major North American financial institutions have created a public index in recent weeks that allows investors to know the price of these new speculative instruments.

May 18, 2026, will be a date etched in the history of Bizum, the Spanish payment services provider par excellence. This Monday, its BizumPay platform will land in shops, bars, and restaurants to present itself as a payment alternative to conventional debit and credit cards, a universe until now dominated by North American groups like Visa or Mastercard. The news excites banks and European institutions, who are looking for new ways to reduce dependence on the United States in all sectors. However, commerce greets the measure with doubts and a rather limited initial implementation is expected.

Mortgage lending continues to circulate – in fact, some financial institutions have warned that it is doing so unsustainably – while housing prices rise month after month. In this context, some are already noticing a difficulty in buying: households where the main residence is rented have a "limited financial capacity" to acquire a first property through a mortgage, according to the Bank of Spain. Be that as it may, the scenario shows no signs of concern in the opinion of the supervisory body, which for some months has been analyzing whether to activate any limitations on the lending criteria for high-risk mortgages that are being granted.