The European Central Bank (ECB) defends that revealing what each bank earns with the “deposit facility” mechanism, as Sumar has been demanding for months, would be a “stigma” for this tool, according to allegations that the Bank of Spain reportedly presented to the National Court the lawsuit finally filed by the party led by Yolanda Díaz in September.
In the document containing these allegations, to which elDiario.es had access, the national regulator provides this argument as well as other arguments from the ECB, the body that decides on the monetary policy of the entire euro zone. This institution, chaired by Christine Lagarde, emphasizes that the transparency required by Sumar could “dissuade” financial entities from requesting “the deposit facility”, which “could harm its effectiveness”.
This resource or monetary policy tool represented a public transfer of 7.805 million euros to the banks of our country in 2023 alone. This is the total figure, but the detail of the amount taken by each entity (Santander, BBVA or Caixabank) is unknown. ). This detail is “secret”, according to the Law. An opacity that tries to break Sumar’s trial.
The operation of the deposit facility is as follows. Financial institutions in each eurozone country can park their “surplus cash” – cash that is not required reserves – in Eurosystem central banks (the Bank of Spain in our case), which remunerate this money at the euro zone interest rate. deposit facility decided by the ECB itself. It is one of the main “guidance” levers of monetary policy.
This mechanism has driven bank profits to historic highs with the central bank’s benchmark interest rate hikes since 2022 to combat inflation, and this will continue in the years to come. Sumar recalls that the “deposit facility” is a public transfer and estimates that last year it represented 65% of the total profits of Spanish financial institutions. In addition, increases in the official “price” of money have also improved the intermediation margins of the sector’s main activity, the granting of loans or mortgages.
Sumar’s trial demands transparency on this tool intended to “protect citizens”. However, the Bank of Spain and the ECB explain to the National Court that “the disclosure of the requested data could harm the effectiveness of the deposit facility and would compromise the achievement of the monetary policy objectives pursued with this instrument, in particular the good functioning of the transmission of monetary policy direction to short-term money markets through broad and non-stigmatized participation in the facility.
As the Bank of Spain adds in its presentation of the arguments, “the disclosure of information on the use of the deposit facility by specific counterparties could dissuade them from using this facility. Indeed, any use of the deposit facility could be interpreted as an indicator of the liquidity situation of a specific credit institution.”
“Ultimately, the disclosure of the requested disaggregated data could lead to stigmatizing the use of the deposit facility and, therefore, dissuade certain credit institutions from using it, which, in turn, could compromise its effectiveness,” indicates the document presented by. the regulator at the National Court.
“The above is particularly relevant given that, as can be inferred from the content of the complaint, the applicants [tres diputados en nombre de Sumar, José María Guijarro, Carlos Martín Urriza y José Manuel Lago Peñas] They would intend to make the requested information public, so that bank customers can take it into account when subscribing. The risk for the Union’s monetary policy could thus materialize [monetaria] warned by the ECB,” continues the Bank of Spain.
On the other hand, the text specifies that banks “have a legitimate commercial interest in preventing third parties from obtaining information on their liquidity and on the amounts obtained through the monetary policy operations of the Eurosystem, given that certain information could lead to unjustified speculation on the financial and financial situation of the Eurosystem. liquidity situation of the participant and its future participation in the monetary policy operations of the Eurosystem.
Bank tax
One of Sumar’s intentions with his lawsuit is to demonstrate that the temporary tax that the coalition government imposed on the financial sector in 2022 for its extraordinary benefits in this cycle of rising interest rates was paid “with this public transfer”.
“The transfer is 6.5 times higher than the 1.214 million paid by the new tax on credit institutions,” Sumar said in a report published in March this year.
Likewise, following this “public transfer”, the Bank of Spain recorded losses in its income statement offset by provisions. The consequence was that the income of 2 billion millions that the Bank of Spain usually achieves each year to the Treasury thanks to its profits was reduced to zero and this, emphasizes Sumar, represented a significant decrease in the possibilities of financing policies public.
The bank tax is a commitment included in the coalition government agreement between the PSOE and Sumar that keeps the two parties at odds. That same Wednesday, the PSOE, the PNV and Junts agreed without Sumar to make it permanent, as this information explains. Yolanda Díaz’s party has tabled its own amendments and hopes to be able to convince the socialists during the parliamentary process.
Reservations required
Also in March 2024, the ECB decided to maintain bank reserve requirements at a coefficient of 1% (here is the technical explanation). Likewise, the remuneration of these mandatory reserves that the entities must maintain in the Eurosystem – the Bank of Spain in our case, and the rest of the central banks of each country in the Eurozone: Bundesbank, Banca d’Italia or Bank of France – remains “without evolving at 0%”, underlines the institution in its press release.
In this way, the rest of the money that the banks “park” in the central banks is remunerated according to the interest rate of the deposit facility (which is currently 3.25%), with public money .
