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.

Since 2008, there has been a veritable tsunami in the banking sector. Financial institutions have closed 6,000 branches in Catalonia since then, thus increasing the risk of financial exclusion, according to a report by the Catalan Competition Authority (ACCO). This process has resulted from various consolidation initiatives, such as CaixaBank's acquisition of Bankia. Consequently, Catalonia, along with Andalusia and Madrid—the most populous autonomous communities—has the fewest bank branches per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Bank of Spain. The ACCO analysis, which previously produced a similar report opposing BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell (a bid that ultimately failed), also warns of the risks of excessive concentration in certain areas and responds to a motion from the Parliament of Catalonia regarding the need to establish a public banking system focused on economic development. The consolidation of the banking sector in Catalonia has been accompanied by branch closures, a decrease in the number of ATMs, and job losses. Between 2008 and 2024, Catalonia lost 6,038 branches, a 74% reduction. As a result, 503 Catalan municipalities (53% of the total) have no bank branches and 435 (46%) have no ATMs. This process has also led to the disappearance of the 10 existing savings banks and a significant increase in concentration: the four largest banks together operate 85% of the branches. According to the study, "the concentration of the retail banking market in Catalonia can be considered high, both in terms of the availability of bank branches and the amount of credit granted." The study adds that "generally, these are markets with an oligopoly structure in which CaixaBank has a significant market share, followed by BBVA, Sabadell, and Santander. Only in a few specific cases do other entities have a considerable market share, such as Ibercaja in the province of Lleida." According to the study, CaixaBank operates 39.22% of branches (828), BBVA 18.85% (398), Banco Sabadell 15.92% (336), and Banco Santander 10.90% (230). The fifth largest bank, Ibercaja, has only 3.27% of branches (69), and the remaining entities, combined, have a market share of 11.84% (250). Currently, only Banc Sabadell, which relinquished its headquarters last year during BBVA's takeover bid, Caixa Ingenieros, and Caixa Guissona have their registered offices in Catalonia. CaixaBank has one in Valencia, although its owner, the La Caixa Foundation, and its investment arm, Criteria, relocated it to Barcelona last year. In total, there are 29 deposit-taking institutions operating in Catalonia.

More population, lower density of bank branches. Catalonia, along with Andalusia and Madrid, the most populated autonomous communities, has the fewest bank branches per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Bank of Spain. And regions like Extremadura, La Rioja, and Aragon, with smaller or more dispersed populations, are among those with the most. However, in both cases, the reduction in networks and supply, with the disappearance of savings banks through their transformation or absorption by other entities, has been drastic since the peak reached in 2008, the year the financial crisis erupted.

Bankinter's CEO, Gloria Ortiz, continues to see "irrationality" in the mortgage market and has once again ruled out entering into any kind of price war for home loans. During the presentation of the 2025 results, in which the bank surpassed €1 billion in profit for the first time, she denounced that some institutions are selling mortgages at 2% or 2.20% when the curve swap The 30-year yield is currently around 3%.

There are still those who remember my time on the Governing Council of the Bank of Spain and ask me about the collapse of the savings bank system during the crisis, driven by nostalgia and the need for financial repositioning of the Catalan productive economy. Of course, for this reason, some of us would like a new, entirely public banking system, going beyond the current tasks of the Catalan Finance Institute: a public banking system that, for now, I don't quite see coming. In any case, I would like to highlight an interesting recent speech by the Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, at the general assembly of the European Association of Cooperative Banks, although he was referring to the cooperative credit sector in Spain.

Changes in CaixaBank's management committee. The board of directors has decided that Jordi Mondéjar will be the new head of business, replacing Jaume Masana, who will assume the role of CEO of SegurCaixa Adeslas, replacing Javier Murillo. Mariona Vicens will retain her position as head of digital transformation and advanced analytics And, in addition, it will assume responsibility for CaixaBank Payments & Consumer (CPC) and Imagin. At the same time, the current risk management department will be divided into two areas: the credit risk admission and monitoring department, which will be led by Manuel Galarza, and the risk management and compliance department, headed by Natividad Capella, who will join the management committee. With these changes, "the entity is adapting to an increasingly digital environment, driving technological disruption, and simplifying its organizational structure," according to a statement. Meanwhile, the sustainability area, which will now report to the business management division, will also integrate social action. And the accounting, management control, and capital department, headed by Matthias Bulach, will also integrate the area of public affairsFurthermore, to facilitate a structured and orderly transition at SegurCaixa Adeslas – whose general insurance company CaixaBank holds a 49.9% stake through VidaCaixa, and Mutua Madrileña a 50% stake – Murillo will continue as CEO, with the support of Jaume Masana as deputy CEO, until his reappointment. Masana, Eugenio Solla (formerly of Bankia, which was absorbed by CaixaBank), who headed the sustainability area and is joining the business side under Mondéjar, and Jordi Nicolau, who led Payments & Consumer, which will now be headed by Mariona Vicens, are leaving the current management committee. The new addition to the management committee is Natividad Capella, director of risk management and compliance. These changes to the management committee are subject to suitability verification by the European Central Bank (ECB). According to CaixaBank, "these changes allow us to evolve towards a digital ecosystem, promoting innovation and technological disruption as drivers of transformation in the financial sector." The new CaixaBank management committee will continue to be chaired by Gonzalo Gortázar, the bank's CEO, and will consist of the following executives:

In 25 years, the financial landscape has changed dramatically: from extensive branch networks to digital banking and the decline of physical branches, which has led public administrations, such as the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Barcelona Provincial Council, to launch mobile banking service concessions. From 2010 to the present day, two-thirds of bank branches have disappeared. In fact, there are now the same number as there were in 1970. And more than 100,000 jobs have been lost in the sector. When Fibanc, the institution founded in 1983 by financier Carles Tusquets, was born, competition among banks was about who had the most branches, the exact opposite of today. And, at the end of 2000, long before the financial crisis that devastated a portion of the financial system, Tusquets opted to merge with the Italian bank Mediolanum. It was a newly established entity, founded some four years earlier in 1997, family-owned and managed by Ennio Doris – today his son Massimo is the CEO of the parent company and his sister Sara is the vice president and also of the subsidiary in Spain.

Caixa Ingenieros will close this year with another 4,000 members, reaching a total of 220,000. 2025 will be another record-breaking year, according to the bank's CEO, Juanjo Llopis, speaking at a press conference to review his first year in the position, having succeeded Joan Cavallé. In fact, the bank expects to surpass last year's result of €24 million. The goal of the Transforma 2026 strategic plan is to end this period with 230,000 members. Llopis also spoke highly of the mobile banking service, which the bank won in a tender issued by the Generalitat (the Catalan government) for towns without bank branches. He explained that this service has allowed them to add 400 members, representing 10% of all those acquired during 2025, to the routes they operate in the Girona, Tarragona, and Anoia areas. These routes, for which CaixaBank also won the tender, have received 1,700 visits and 1,900 ATM transactions. They also plan to maintain their proximity banking strategy by opening between one and three new branches next year. This year, they have added three in Catalonia: Vilanova i la Geltrú, Vic, and Manresa, and one in Alicante. The intention is to continue opening branches in regional capitals and some municipalities where they currently offer mobile banking services. They also plan to open branches in other provincial capitals outside of Catalonia where they do not yet have a presence. Currently, they have branches in Bilbao, Zaragoza, Seville (2), Málaga, Palma, Valencia (2), and Madrid (3).

Qivalis is the name of the consortium of 10 European banks, including CaixaBank, that will launch their own digital currency during the second half of next year. Specifically, a stablecoinThat is, a digital currency linked in this case to the euro. stablecoin It will allow for near-instantaneous, low-cost payments and settlements, available 24/7, including cross-border transactions, improved supply chain management, and settlement of digital assets such as securities and cryptocurrencies.

In these 15 years of the ARA, the Catalan economy, which three lustrums ago had a gross domestic product (GDP) of about 200 billion euros, has today more than 300 billion, more than 50% higher; it has experienced a total restructuring of the financial system, the flight of business headquarters with the referendum of October 1, 2017 and a fall in activity like in the Civil War due to the coronavirus crisis. This period has now ended with Banc Sabadell shareholders' refusal to accept BBVA's takeover bid, which BBVA had already attempted in 2020. But the story of this newspaper, which hit newsstands (there were still quite a few) on November 28, 2012, featuring Mois Noguera, the first Catalan born that year, on the front page, began two months after a general strike against labor reforms under the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as Spanish Prime Minister. Following the biggest economic crisis since 1929, recovery was beginning to offer hope, but the world was reeling from the shock of the attacks on the debt of Greece and Ireland, and other countries with high deficits, including Spain.

As Spain prepares to close a record year for mortgage signings, potentially exceeding 500,000 across the country—levels not seen in fifteen years—a changing cycle is beginning with rising interest rates. "Most financial institutions are raising interest rates on home loans" because no further rate cuts are expected in the short term from the European Central Bank (ECB), explains the comparison website HelpMyCash.

Banc Sabadell sets a new profit record. The bank earned a total of €1.39 billion between January and September of this year, representing a 7.3% increase compared to the same period in 2014. These third-quarter results are the bank's first since the lengthy BBVA takeover bid process. which was rejected after receiving the support of only 25.47% of the voting rightsAnd these announcements come as the euphoria of having overcome the takeover bid by the Basque bank is still palpable, and as the private celebration this Saturday approaches. The bank has rented the Sant Jordi Palace in Barcelona and expects some 9,000 employees to attend to celebrate the resolution of the case and thank them for their efforts during this time.

CaixaBank closed the first nine months of the year with a net profit of €4.397 billion, 3.5% higher than in the same period of the previous year. This growth is attributed to the boost in commercial activity despite the trend towards lower interest rates, according to the bank. As a result of these results, the bank's board has approved an interim dividend of €0.1679 per share, representing 40% of the first-half profit, to be paid against 2025 earnings on November 7. The bank has also decided to launch a new share buyback program, its seventh, valued at €500 million.

CaixaBank has decided to join eight other major European banks – ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, UniCredit, SEB and Raiffeisen Bank International – to create a stablecoin pegged to the euro, designed in accordance with the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). stablecoin It is a type of cryptocurrency designed to minimize the volatility of its value—as is the case with cryptoassets of this type, such as Bitcoin—by linking it to one or more assets with a stable value. In this case, it is the euro.

With the return from the holidays, BBVA's takeover bid for Sabadell has been revived. The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) authorized the transaction this Friday after reviewing the prospectus submitted by BBVA. The acceptance period for shareholders will be thirty calendar days, beginning next Monday, the 8th, which means the deadline will end on October 7th. "From now on, it's the shareholders' turn," stated Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo, after participating in a conference at the Pimec headquarters in Barcelona.

In the final stretch of BBVA's takeover bid, Banc Sabadell is paying its shareholders €370 million this Friday, at €0.07 per share (€0.0567 net, after deducting tax withholdings). This sum is part of the €6.3 billion it plans to distribute both in cash and through share buybacks between 2025 and 2027, the dates of its new strategic plan. It includes an extraordinary dividend of €2.5 billion from the sale of the British subsidiary TSB (0.50 per share) – massively ratified by shareholders in early August – which will be distributed in early 2026.

Objective achieved. Major banks are once again financing the Catalan government thirteen years later. CaixaBank, Banco Sabadell, BBVA, and Santander are four of the six financial institutions that have enabled the government to successfully complete the partial refinancing process of the regional liquidity fund (FLA) for 2023 at a lower interest rate than the current one, amounting to €3.5 billion. As a result of this operation, the Catalan government will save €127.6 million in interest over eleven years, until 2035, according to calculations by the Ministry of Economy. This is the first operation with the private financial sector to finance long-term debt since 2012, the year in which the markets for the regional governments were closed and the instruments to provide them with liquidity and resources to pay suppliers were created. BBVA has signed an agreement to refinance €1 billion, and Santander, around €700 million. CaixaBank and Sabadell have not disclosed the amounts provided.

Spanish banking default rates fell below 3% in June for the first time since October 2008, according to data released by the Bank of Spain. The non-performing loan ratio stood at 2.97%, very similar to the 2.92% recorded in October 2008, when the economy peaked before the financial crisis.