It has hurried to the maximum of April to publicize its final report on the OPA launched by the envelope just a year ago. To reach a finish line – which the Basque group waited in its day that it did not pass from 2024 and that it can now be delayed until autumn – the entity chaired by Carlos Torres has maintained a long negotiation.
Notwithstanding what the government determines in its final analysis, the BBVA raises a long list of actions that. Most commitments will last 3 years, extendable for two more in the case of credit for SMEs; and 18 months in the case of conditions of access to ATMs.
These are the great blocks of commitments and the proposed measures:
1) Vulnerable clients: The BBVA undertakes to create and advertise an account for vulnerable clients, and identify customers of both entities that can benefit from the favorable conditions of said account.
2) Communications to customers: BBVA undertakes to publish on their website and communicate to Sabadell customers of changes in conditions that could be applicable to their products and services.
3) Physical presence maintenance commitment in certain territories: BBVA undertakes not to leave any municipality in which as a result of the operation, one of the parties is present with a single competitive office, including eight municipalities in which the parties are currently without any competitor.
Nor will it do it where there is no other office of the resulting entity less than 300 meters away or in any case the 35 specialized offices in Sabadell companies will be closed and will maintain its managers.
Likewise, the presence in those municipalities will be respected in which the per capita income of the population is less than 10,000 euros as of the resolution (around 200 municipalities) and in those municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants in which at least one of the parties is present (identified more than 150 municipalities).
In addition to all this, the BBVA undertakes to maintain the commercial schedules of offices that have cash service and to offer the Cash postal service free twice a week, as well as not to close displaced cashiers of the parties in the locations where there is one or no competitor.
4) Commitment to maintain commercial conditions in problematic postal codes: BBVA undertakes to maintain the conditions of the clients (both particular, such as SMEs and autonomous) of both parties in the offices located in the areas of the postal codes where the operation gives rise to a monopoly (7), duopoly (65) or where the resulting entity will have two competitors (96), being a total of 168.
The commitment involves the non -modification of defined and indefinite products, except to offer more favorable conditions. It also undertakes to maintain the free window operations in case they would have been free before concentration.
Regarding SMEs, the BBVA is committed specifically in the case of SMEs to continue maintaining a commercial policy at the national level of products and prices; Not to close specialized offices of Sabadell companies no longer offer a price higher than the national medium for the new credit flow for SMEs and freelancers, for each level of rating and financing product.
5) Maintenance commitment of circulating lines and credit volume to SMEs: On the one hand, BBVA undertakes to maintain short -term financing (term less than one year) that SMEs and self -employed have contracted with Banco Sabadell, including those destined to finance foreign trade activities. These financing lines will be renewed to their expiration date while the commitments last.
On the other hand, BBVA undertakes to maintain the volume of credit in the medium and long term of SME clients that at April 30, 2025 receive at least 85 % of this financing from BBVA and/or Banco Sabadell.
Additionally, for the Autonomous Communities in which the resulting entity’s fee exceeds 30% with the addition of more than 10% in the credit segment to SMEs (Catalonia and the Balearic Islands), the BBVA undertakes to maintain the volume of credit of SME clients that on April 30, 2025 have at least 50% of their financing with BBVA and/or Banco Sabadell. For these purposes, the financing criteria granted at the BBVA offices and Banco Sabadell located in these autonomous communities will be applied.
6) Commitment to transitional access to ATMs: The BBVA undertakes, with respect to Sabadell’s agreements with the Euro6000 and Cardtronics network, that, in case of finishing them, its clients are offered access to the ATMs that were owned by Sabadell in the same conditions provided for in said agreements.
In the event that the completion of said agreements occurred before the end of the term stipulated in the commitment (18 months), the BBVA undertakes to negotiate with said entities an agreement in the same terms and conditions for the remaining period until it is 18 months.
The BBVA also undertakes not to modify the current commissions policy that Sabadell applies to entities with which it does not have access agreements to ATMs.
7) Commitment in relation to the services for acquiring payment operations: The BBVA undertakes not to worsen the conditions of the services for the acquisition of payment operations that SMEs and self -employed customers had hired on April 30, 2025.
