Banesto chairman Ana Patricia Botín tells Karina Robinson that the bank’s independence is vital for keeping revenues up.

Spain’s cajas – non-profit making savings banks – are thriving and have considerable clout in terms of market share. 

Spain’s retail banks are enjoying the fruits of a property boom that began in the late 1990s and is still feeding the mortgage sector. In addition, they are looking to service smaller businesses.

Banco Popular’s competitors may be gaining ground but the bank is still an attractive acquisition target. Chairman Angel Ron talks to Karina Robinson about strategies for SME and consumer finance business and why he is betting on staying independent.

Ana Patricia Botín has banker blood in her veins: stretching back to her great-grandfather, who became chairman of Banco Santander in 1909, to her father, Emilio Botín, a legend in his own lifetime whose latest coup – the purchase of Abbey National in the UK by Santander Central Hispano – is transforming the bank.

Asset-backed securities from the Iberian Peninsula have proved popular with European investors. A recent transaction, the first to be backed by auto leases and loans, and to combine a securitisation framework from Portugal and Spain, indicates that the market is still developing.

The determination of Spain to maintain normality after March’s attacks in Madrid served to highlight the nation’s strength.

The Madrid bomb blast may have changed the election outcome but Spain’s strong economic performance is unlikely to be affected. Jules Stewart reports.

Spanish banks have had an uphill struggle in Latin America but now the continent is delivering returns at the same time as the domestic market remains buoyant. Jules Stewart reports.
Last month’s terrorist attacks in Madrid may have raised a question mark over Spain’s political agenda, but for the banks it is business as usual, only more so. The outlook for 2004 is for continued growth inoperating profits.

Spain’s public debt market has been strengthened by sound fiscal management, above-average economic growth and improved liquidity.