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%.

The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) is investigating whether a group of brokers has agreed to fix mortgage prices and commercial conditions and, consequently, has infringed free competition in the market. Competition suspects that the alleged fraudulent practices took place within the framework of "an association of companies dedicated to mortgage intermediation", but does not specify which one.

After three consecutive increases (March, April, and May), the daily one-year Euribor in June, the main reference for variable interest rate mortgages, has moderated and experienced a slight decrease compared to the previous month. The indicator closed the month at 2.728%, and therefore, an average in June of 2.798%, below the 2.8% of the previous month. In any case, the amount paid by mortgagors will continue to rise, with an increase of 66.40 euros per month and 796.8 euros per year on average, as it is compared to the 2.081% that existed a year ago.

The president of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), Carlos San Basilio, has argued that the Spanish stock market should grow in listed companies and diversification. "We should have an Ibex-50, with companies with high capitalization and liquidity, and that could be a market as diversified as possible," he stated during his intervention at the summer course of the UIMP and APIE held this week in Santander.

The chairman of BBVA, Carlos Torres, has defended the Spanish mortgage market less than a week after the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) opened disciplinary proceedings against the six large Ibex-35 banks – including BBVA – for mortgage interest rates.

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.

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 North American investment multinational Blackstone has limited the withdrawal of money from investors in its main private credit fund following a surge in investment liquidations. This is another case of massive money withdrawals from an investment vehicle dedicated to private credit, a branch of the financial industry that has been showing problems in recent months in the United States, where it operates as a shadow banking sector. shadow banking.

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.

Bad times are coming for holders of variable-rate mortgages. The daily 12-month Euribor, the main reference for this type of loan for home purchases, has closed the month with an average above 2.8% (2.804%) and is heading towards 3%, according to analysts. Thus, the monthly payment for an average mortgage of 174,132 euros with Euribor plus one point, which was 833.11 euros, will rise to 900.39 euros, an increase of 67.28 euros more or 807.36 euros more per year.

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.

With the highest quorum in recent years, over 71%, according to the secretary of the board, Miquel Roca, Banco Sabadell has gathered shareholders today at the first post-failed BBVA OPA meeting. A meeting that has served as a farewell from the CEO who has been for the last more than five years, César González-Bueno; and a welcome to the new one, Marc Armengol, a professional with more than 25 years of experience in the company. And it had an unusual ending for board meetings, a refreshment as an shareholder requested a year ago, recalled the bank's president, Josep Oliu.

Banco Sabadell has reduced the pace of mortgage lending to adapt to lower profitability of this type of loans for home purchases. The CEO, César González-Bueno, who will leave his post after tomorrow's shareholders' meeting to hand over to Marc Armengol, former head of the British subsidiary, TSB, sold to Banco Santander, explained that mortgage prices (interest rates) "are very strained" and there is a lower pace of production and also of amortization.

Now the episode of BBVA's takeover bid for Banco Sabadell is truly over. With the closing of the sale of the British subsidiary TSB to Banco Santander, and the distribution of an extraordinary dividend of 50 cents per share on May 29, the bank closes a chapter in its 145-year history and begins a new one. The challenge is to prove that, after years of integrating entities in Spain (Atlántic, Guipuzcoano, or Urquijo), it will do better alone than in a bad partnership. After next Wednesday's shareholders' meeting, it will be a bank completely focused on the Catalan and Spanish market, with the challenge of deepening digitalization, but at the same time maintaining the characteristic of personal service with clients and, above all, with companies.

The daily one-year Euribor, the main reference for variable-rate mortgages, closed April with a new increase, reaching 2.848%. The average stood at 2.747%, compared to 2.143% a year ago, and a new increase is added to that of March. Consequently, this evolution, which places this reference at the levels of September 2024, means the average mortgage (173,280 euros, according to INE data from February, over 25 years) will increase its monthly installment by 55.94 euros or 671.28 annually, to 890.60 euros per month or 10,687.2 euros per year.

The Spanish financial system faces the economic uncertainty generated by the attacks on Iran by the United States from a position of "strength, resilience, and profitability" and "prepared even for the worst-case scenarios." This Thursday, the CEO of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Gortázar, wanted to convey confidence in the state economy during the entity's results presentation for the first quarter of 2026. A period during which the company has once again achieved record figures. This time, a net profit of 1,572 million euros, that is, 7% more than in the same period of the previous year.

One of the songs from the final stage of The Beatles was The long and winding road (The long and winding road), on the album Let it be, the last one published, even though it was recorded before Abbey Road. Surely the title and parts of the lyrics come to mind for Alícia Romero's Ministry of Economy: "You left me standing here. A long, long time ago. Don't leave me waiting. Guide me to your door." Not only because of the difficulties she has in approving the first budgets of Salvador Illa's legislature, which also, but because of the obstacles in achieving another objective pursued by the different Catalan governments, which is to make the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) a true public bank to cover areas that private financial entities do not reach, or barely do.

The Euribor continues to make mortgages more expensive, one of the consequences of the effects of the war in the Middle East. This indicator, which is the benchmark for variable-interest home loans, but also affects new ones entering the market, closed March at an average of 2.565%, with the largest monthly increase in three years after reaching 2.870% on the last day of the month. As a consequence of this trend, holders of variable-interest mortgages with annual reviews will suffer the first increase in their installments since April 2024 because this month's Euribor is higher than that of a year ago, which was 2.398%.

The Catalan Finance Institute (ICF), the public bank of the Generalitat, has granted to date 846 loans to young people aged 18 to 35 to obtain the down payment for an apartment. The average granted is 36,332 euros and an average housing price of 189,908 euros with an average age of beneficiaries of 29.4 years, according to data presented by the Secretary General of Economy and President of the ICF's governing board, Juli Fernández, and the entity's CEO, Vanessa Servera.