The president of Banco Santander, Ana Botinhas defended this Tuesday that the banking sector does not need further regulation and dismissed the recent turbulence in the sector (the takeover of the historic Credit Suisse by UBS and the fall of Silicon Valley Bank) to the “bad management”, reports EFE. “What I would say is that first we have to have a good diagnosis, but what we don’t need is more regulation,” Botín has defended who has argued that financial institutions are not in the same situation as in 2008 and that the regulated banking business, especially the so-called systemic banks, “are strong”.
Botín welcomed the fact that “the European Commission has accepted that regulation is a tool for innovation and growth” and defended that it is necessary “rethink what we want banks to do”what is the right approach for the next ten years and understand how to have “a financial system that can support growth and is profitable.” In his opinion, the key is not to toughen the regulations but rather “we have to deeply rethink how we regulate.”
Asked about the recent turmoil around Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, which finally also required financial assistance from the Swiss government, the president of Santander has concluded that what happened “had nothing to do with regulation or supervision.” “What happened was mismanagement. Everything you shouldn’t have done has been done: risk concentration, maturity imbalance, insufficient liquidityinvest in sovereign debt at 1% or less than 1%”, Botín said during a conference organized by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in Brussels.
Financing the green transition, the “greatest opportunity”
For the president of Santander, the “biggest opportunity for growth” is in “financing the green transition”For this reason, it has advocated for Europe to align its sustainability standards for banking with those developed internationally to avoid a disparity that leads to losing opportunities.
