Barcelona“The main source of concern is the presumed risk of a decrease in the supply of credit resulting from greater banking concentration, which in the specific case of Catalonia would reach very high limits.” It is one of the phrases highlighted in the letter that Josep Santacreu, president of the Chamber of Barcelona, sent this Monday to Cani Fernández, president of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) to express the opposition of the Council of Chambers of Catalonia to the takeover bid proposed by BBVA over Sabadell.
Santacreu explains in his letter that the reasons for this concern regarding a possible merger that would eliminate the bank of Valais origin “are widely shared by the entire economic and business fabric of Catalonia, represented by the chambers”, as they have was able to verify “in multiple conversations with entrepreneurs from different sectors and business sizes” in recent months.
The president of the Council of Chambers explains to Fernández (who will have a role in the tender because at some point he will have to assess whether the CNMC gives the green light to the operation) that “in the case of Banco Sabadell there are unique circumstances that they go beyond the usual competition defense criteria, since it is a financial institution very specialized in lending to small and medium-sized companies.”
In his letter, Santacreu insists on “the valuable intangible” created in the network of relationships and knowledge linked to people “on both sides of the bank-company relationship”.
The president of the Chamber also defends the “European integration project started by Sabadell” with the purchase of TSB “projecting abroad a culture of service to SMEs from a strong domestic base”.
Cani Fernández has given ambiguous messages in recent months about the position of the CNMC with regard to a merger that would leave the State with only three large entities (Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank) and that in regions such as Catalonia the lack of competition would explode. Fernández has stated that “fewer banks does not mean less competition”, although there is still no official position from the body he presides over.
The Chamber’s position comes two weeks after Pimec also spoke out against the tender.
Source: www.ara.cat
