The governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escriva, requested that the new design of the bank tax avoids penalize certain types of “slightly riskier” activities such as credit to SMEs, which requires larger provisions than loans to large companies.
This is what he declared during his first appearance at the Economic Commission of the Congress of Deputies since his appointment in mid-November. It is worth recalling that the Lower House approved on Thursday a tax reform that includes a new design of the sectoral tax that includes a progressive rate that taxes the interest margin and net commissions up to 7%.
He recalled that it is the European Central Bank (ECB) which must give its opinion on the tax, as it already did in November 2022 with the previous conception of the banking tax, even if the Bank of Spain would have could be requested. in this regard, what was emphasized “was not the case”.
Although he did not address the question of who to tax, how to tax and how wealth is redistributed, a question that depends on the legislator, Escriva indicated that he could address the question of what he considers desirable in order to that the tax “has no undesirable and unintended effects” by the legislative power itself.
It was at that moment that he remembered the bank’s request that does not affect businesses that may be considered higher risksuch as credit to small and medium-sized businesses, which have fewer options for access to financing than large businesses, but which run a greater risk of non-payment.
“Since it is a somewhat riskier business, banks make more provisions and therefore in the provision part there is more cushion for this risk. It is desirable that when the design of a tax with these characteristics [que grava los ingresos de la banca] net of the provisions below, whatever the overall collection capacity, which is entirely legitimate”, he told the deputies present at the committee.
He also emphasized that we must be “cautious” on the question of tax progressivitywhile requesting that certain investments that Spanish banking entities must undertake, such as technological issues, are also not penalized by the tax.
“This leads us to think about a tax base more oriented towards a lower part of the cascade [es decir, de la cuenta de resultados] than above. I believe that these elements do not at all call into question what a certain sector wants to be taxed, where it is difficult for us to enter, but we should take them into account so that the design of the tax does not have no unexpected effects,” he concluded on this subject.
BBVA takeover bid for Sabadell
Asked by the deputies about the possible banking concentration and the relationship of this question with the public purchase offer that BBVA wishes to launch on Sabadell, Escriva was careful and “respectful” in distributing power among supervisors.
He indicated that among the functions of the Bank of Spain [“y mira que tenemos funciones, hasta once identificadas”, ha comentado] There is no competition analysis which, in Spain, depends on the CNMC and, at European level, directly on the European Commission.
“What we [el Banco de España] We have provided all the information that the national and European competition authorities have requested from us. But it is very difficult, when you have a colleague responsible for competition at your side, to express yourself honestly,” he said.
