Economy defends before Brussels that Spanish regulations are compatible with European regulations after the BBVA takeover file

The Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business is preparing ‘in extremis’ the allegations to the European Commission for the infringement file opened to Spain as a result of its actions in BBVA’s takeover bid for Banco Sabadell. The department led by Carlos Cuerpo has until this Wednesday to respond and according to sources close to ‘La Información Económica’, in said document the Government will defend that Spanish regulations are “fully compatible” with European Union law. In any case, they hope that with the document presented “the doubts raised” by the Community Executive can be resolved.

However, in the context of the transposition of the new Capital Requirements Directive (CRD VI) they do plan to adjust domestic regulations to guarantee the exclusive competence of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Spain (BdE) in matters of prudential supervision, “without prejudice to the role of other authorities within the framework of their powers”, such as the case of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC).

The body headed by Ursula Von der Leyen granted a six-week extension to respond to Brussels’ requirements, an extraordinary period that contemplates when the changes required from the Government of the day are large-scale. The Commission notified Spain of the opening of the file on July 17 due to the discretionary powers that national legislation grants to the Government to stop operations such as the takeover bid.

These powers allowed the national Executive to impose conditions that prevent the merger of both entities for a minimum period of three years, extendable to two more years. The community government understands that, according to European banking legislation, this could be contravening the exclusive powers that the European Central Bank (ECB) and national supervisors have regarding operations of this type.

In Brussels they doubt whether the intervention of the Executive in the operation really responds to reasons of general interest, they also understand that in financial matters it is not possible to refer the decision adopted by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) to the Council of Ministers.

The Government has stressed at all times that the two regulations it questions Brussels They have been in force for at least a decade and have been applied in other operations. Specifically, the Law on the Defense of Competition was approved in 2007 and the Law on Solvency of Credit Institutions seven years later, in 2014. On the other hand, and as the Corps itself explained, this entire process will not affect the calendar of the takeover bid, which continues its course. The procedure continues despite the failure of the operation, given that it has no impact on the operation, but rather on the adaptation of Spanish legislation to community law.