EU Commission Concludes Financial Assistance Program For Spanish Banks

The European Commission has published its Evaluation Report on the Assistance Program for the Spanish Financial Sector, which was implemented between 2012 and 2014. The report highlights the success of the measures implemented and the strong commitment from the Spanish authorities to its execution, according to the Spanish government.

The aim of the report is to evaluate the program in terms of its effectiveness, efficiency and coherence, with the aim of drawing lessons for future European Union programs.

The European Commission report highlights that the goals sought have been achieved and other risks have been averted that could have had negative consequences for the banks and for the Spanish economy as a whole. The indicators analyzed show a clear improvement in relation to solvency, profitability and financing costs of the financial system, while returning credit flows to the real economy.

The assessors also point out that it was the right decision to focus the program and its conditional nature upon the financial sector and avoid the inclusion of measures aimed at fiscal policy and structural reforms.

Furthermore, the report points out that the implementation of measures contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Spanish authorities was swift and effective, with the majority of the reforms being undertaken in 2012. This allowed confidence in the Spanish economy and in its financial system to be restored from the very outset of the program.

The document also highlights the commitment made by the Government of Spain to meeting its fiscal targets and the adoption of structural reforms in parallel to the financial assistance program, which has led to the economy entering a virtuous circle, resulting in job creation and economic growth. The reforms implemented led to the recovery of investor confidence in Spain and in the ability of its authorities to correct the macro-economic imbalances.

The Spanish authorities share the conclusions of the report in general and appreciate the European Commission’s acknowledgement of the commitment and efforts made by the government in terms of this program, the Spanish government said.

Spain requested the financial assistance program back in June 2012, endowed with a line of credit of up to 100 billion euros under very advantageous conditions, with the aim of cleaning up and restructuring the Spanish financial system. Of this total, something over 40 billion euros was finally required, of which more than 5.6 billion have already been reimbursed to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), close to 15% of the total.