Hectic times await the banking tax that is being processed in the Congress of Deputies. To the harsh attacks launched by those affected from the first minute, with warnings of potential appeals to the courts, and to the censorship of the CEOE, a weighty criticism will be added in the coming days: that of the European Central Bank. It was known that the ECB report on this rate will be presented in the coming days or weeks. The Vice President of the ECB, Luis de Guindos, affirmed this Monday when he participated in an act of the General College of Economists.
But what sources close to the Bank anticipate is that the content of the report will be very critical, harsh against a tax that has put pressure on the sector. It is true that the ECB report is not binding, but there is no doubt that the position of the highest monetary authority in this area will have a specific weight in the parliamentary processing of this tax which, together with the tax on extraordinary profits from electric companies, expects to raise 7,000 million euros in two years. It was known from the outset that this tax was not going to please the ECB, and the indications are that it will be questioned in the report that will be presented. Yesterday the First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, met in Frankfurt with the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde. At the exit, Calviño stated that the ECB is studying the tax "taking into account the powers of the Bank of Spain in the field of supervision and financial stability." She also added that "these are issues that of course we have analyzed in depth by the Government before presenting the tax proposal." Sources from her department added that "the Government has designed this temporary rate by analyzing in depth its impact on solvency, given its temporary nature and its amount."
Yesterday, the Financial Times pointed out that Spain had placed itself in a potential clash with the ECB due to this tax, information that La Vanguardia has been able to confirm.
The Spanish Executive intends to raise 3,000 million in two years, in 2022 and 2023, with a temporary surcharge of 4.8% on the interest margin and on the net commissions obtained by financial entities with revenues greater than 800 million. From the Spanish bank employers hope to see if in its processing in Congress "suffers any changes."
Yesterday, the CEO of Bankinter, Dolores Dancausa, criticized it again during the presentation of the results of the financial entity, calling it "unfair, confiscatory and without rational justification". "I don't know what banking has to do with inflation," she added. To which she added to exempt Bankinter: "Entities that did not receive financial aid in the previous crisis should be left out." Dancausa does not rule out taking action in court if the interests of its shareholders are undermined.
