Challenges for Spanish banks: 50 years after deregulation
Spanish banks
Fecha: mayo 2024
Santiago Carbó Valverde and Francisco Rodríguez Fernández
SEFO, Spanish and International Economic & Financial Outlook, V. 13 N.º3 (May 2024)
The Spanish banking sector, since its deregulation 50 years ago until today, has been shaped by significant structural transformation as a result of the need to adapt to a changing environment and respond to challenges. Indeed, Spanish banks have demonstrated resilience and the ability to adapt to changes in market conditions, financial regulation, disruptive technology and global economic crises. Firstly, it is essential to acknowledge that the sector deregulation embarked on in the 1970s unleashed a series of changes that have profoundly redefined the Spanish banking landscape. The number of deposit-takers in Spain has decreased significantly, from 262 in 1993 to 109 in 2023, illustrating the scale of sector consolidation in response to economic challenges and opportunities to increase efficiency. There has also been a contraction in sector employment, from 270,085 jobs in 2008 to 158,217 in 2022, and in the number of bank branches, from 45,662 in 2008 to 17,603 in 2023. These figures underscore the banks’ shift to a more technology-heavy model less dependent on physical infrastructure, evidencing a transition towards digitalisation and operational efficiency in response to new market demands and competitive pressures in a globalised financial environment. In tandem with these structural changes, the composition of the banks’ income and expenses has evolved significantly, encompassing efforts to navigate the ultra-low rate environment in the wake of the financial crisis as well as remarkable efforts to boost cost-to-income efficiency. On top of profitability pressures, the management of risks under the growing regulatory push to increase solvency, on the one hand, and technological challenges, on the other, remain the most important issues facing the Spanish banks in the years to come. On this last point, the banks will need to balance the search for scale against the agility required to adapt to new technology and shifting customer expectations.