The tension is rising in the economic community of catalonia. On Thursday, Banco Sabadell, the fifth largest Spanish bank, whose headquarters are located in Barcelona, will hold a board of directors of emergency in the late afternoon during which will be clearly addressed the question of a move out of Catalonia, according to a spokesman cited by AFP. On Tuesday, the director general of Sabadell, Josep Oliu, had referred to a half-word the idea of a displacement of the seat, in case of the declaration of independence and output of the region of the european Union, a situation that would create a real problem of supervision and access to financing from the ECB.
“I can assure you that the bank, if necessary, take adequate measures […] to protect the interests of its clients in the framework of the european Union and the system of supervision european banking”, he said.
The relocation of the head office, operation of a purely legal nature, do not take more than a few hours. Founded in 1881 in the region, the bank, which employs 26,000 people and whose assets amounted to 217 billion euros, taking its name from the city of Sabadell, 20 km north of Barcelona.
Concern Exchange
In the aftermath of the referendum of self-determination, in the beginning of the week, the action Sabadell and the fund CaixaBank, the first bank in Catalan, have been bumpy in the Madrid stock Exchange, losing 10% of their value. This Thursday, Sabadell is at the head of the index Spanish Ibex, capturing more than 5% in mid-day. It capitalizes 9.2 billion euros.
The analysts of Barclays had considered the concerns excessive in relation to the risk for the involved banks in a note last week:
“We believe that the immediate concerns around the independence are overblown and that they constitute a medium-term risk is manageable for the results of the banks”, they wrote, maintaining their recommendation to “overweight” action Sabadell.
