About Banco Sabadell, which leaves the ball on the Central Government’s roof, coincided with Labor Day. Hence, the steps to be followed by the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, with his partner against the operation, has been one of the star issues in the interventions of unions and parties before participating in the march with which the ephemeris is commemorated. In Barcelona, from where the position of the opted entity is defended, both CC OO and UGT and Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and the common ones, have shown themselves against the OPA. The government has a month and a half to decide.
From Madrid, the second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, in an interview in TVE has again qualified as very bad news this future fusion that believes that what he does is “further reinforce” the financial oligopoly that exists in Spain and sharpen the systemic risk of which the European Commission has already warned. Especially concerned with their affectation on employment, since up to 5,000 layoffs could be added, number three of the central government claims that the operation is blocked.
Back to Barcelona, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, has repeated the same arguments that Díaz had launched hours before. “The processes of are negative for users, and generate losses of jobs and quality in the service, has assured before the demonstration the leader of the commons.” We bet on a diverse, plural financial system, not in the hands of a few. That is why we reject the operation, ”he added.
The Catalan socialists, on the other hand, have wanted to show more cautious to the path that the operation begins. “In Catalonia there is a banking model rooted in the country, its business fabric and its companies with a social commitment. We will rigorously analyze the report and all the data to act with coherence, defending above all the interests of Catalonia,” wrote the president Salvador Illa last night, on social network X.
The position of the PSC is very prudent, since the commitment of last January of the bank chaired process. In 2017, Sabadell changed its home to guarantee legal certainty.
Yes, the two majority unions in Catalonia, CC OO and UGT have shown their frontal rejection. , and Camil Ros, leader of the second, have agreed to report that if the OPA completed not only many jobs would be in danger but also access to loans for many citizens and SMEs, the latter a segment in which Sabadell is focused. “The Government has the last word and we began to make a different decision than the CNMC has taken,” Ros said.
In turn, the general secretaries of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, and CC OO, Unai Sordo, in a radio interview in RNE, delve into the worst omen: this fusion is “bad news” that calls into question the competition of the banking sector, with an impact on financial clients.
Oriol Junqueras, the ERC leader, has been against any movement that implies an excessive concentration in the financial sector and fears that if the operation promoted from the Basque entity is ahead, access to credit is limited by small entrepreneurs. Despite this, the Republican has urged the central government to battle so that “work is not lost and the decision centers in Catalonia are maintained.”
The Sabadell, according to a report last year of the Catalan Competition Authority (ACCO), has 16.1% of the bank offices in CC AA. That is, 343. If the BBVA was finally made with the Vallesan entity, the market share of both would be 34.8%. Then Roger Loppacher, president of the ACCO, warned that the OPA was consummated “a potential risk for competition”. After knowing the decision of the CNMV, the president of the Catalan body has assured Europa Press that he believes that the remedies proposed by the regulator do not take the risk to which there is “financial exclusion”.
Despite the touch -ups to contribute more guarantees to the offer made by the BBVA, the analysis of the CNMV points to some problems in the transaction, such as conflicts of competence in the commercial conditions in particular, SMEs and autonomous, deficiencies in access to financial services in rural areas, and the worsening of conditions in means of payment, among others. Economy will have 15 days to evaluate the Bank proposal chaired by Carlos Torres, that having the green light would be elevated later to the Council of Ministers. The Government, with a period of 30 days for the final yes, has the power to ask for more conditions.
