Financial Sector & Digitalization
The Financial and Digitization Area monitors the situation of the financial system, with special attention to the banking sector and groups of savings banks, and its digital transformation.
In this area, research of international diffusion in the financial system is carried out, developed by the researchers that form it and also through collaborations of the same with other world-renowned researchers. Among the topics that are most developed are financial and banking regulation and its effects, the competitive structure of the banking sector, the means of payment for business financing and the role of finance in economic growth.
The digital transformation of the Spanish financial system is analyzed through the Observatorio de la Digitalización Financiera (ODF). The objective of this Observatory is to generate, accumulate and disseminate information on the progress of the digital transformation in the Spanish financial system.
Highlighted
Santiago Carbó de Funcas. Las tensiones financieras de la semana pasada afectaron a la valoración de la deuda estadounidense. Los treasuries americanos perdieron atractivo –elevando los mercados sus exigencias de rentabilidad– ante el caos decisorio de las autoridades económicas de aquel país sobre los aranceles, con la consiguiente erosión del carácter de activo refugio del dólar. Asimismo, la incertidumbre ha alcanzado a los bonos de otros países vinculados a esta moneda, por lo que las próximas acciones de los bancos centrales, en particular del BCE, se centrarán previsiblemente en generar un entorno de confianza a inversores y ahorradores.
Artículo
Cost efficiency in the Spanish banking sector in the face of margin pressures: Contrast between SIs and LSIs
Fecha:
April 2025
The sharp rise in interest rates since 2021 has driven up operating expenses for Spanish banks, making cost efficiency a key priority in the current context of slowing margin growth. A comparison between significant institutions (SIs) and less significant institutions (LSIs) highlights differences in cost structures, expense growth, and efficiency gains, with LSIs seeing more intense expense increases but also stronger improvements in efficiency.
Artículo
Monetary decoupling in a fragmented world: How far will the ECB’s interest rate cuts go?
Fecha:
April 2025
The Federal Reserve’s stable interest rate policy contrasts with the European Central Bank’s continued rate cuts aimed at stimulating weak eurozone growth. While monetary policy divergence is strengthening the dollar, albeit not consistently, and driving capital flows to the US, geopolitical fragmentation and protectionism are exacerbating economic uncertainty, generating bond market volatility and weakening global policy coordination.
Artículo
The recovery of the eurozone periphery: Structural growth or cyclical momentum?
Fecha:
April 2025
Growth rates across the countries of southern Europe, once considered the weakest link in the eurozone, have outpaced the bloc’s core economies in recent years. While structural reforms have played a part, continued economic convergence within the eurozone will depend on consolidation of structural improvements, boosting productivity and resilience to global uncertainty.