The AEB is asking politicians to “look closely” to avoid a tax that amounts to “250,000 of the average mortgage”.

The bank is urging policymakers to avoid seeking short-term results by extending a tax that could potentially have a detrimental effect on the flow of credit. The president of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), Alejandra Kindelan, this Thursday directly asked the deputies who will vote this afternoon on the measure in the Congressional Finance Commission to “take a long-term perspective.”

“Long-term vision, please. Think not about short-term gains, but about the opportunities our economy must fund to support families and businesses during these important times. This is a tax on economic growth. This is a tax on economic growth. tax is against the social progress of the economy,” he warned during financial conferences organized by the ABC and Deloitte.

The tax represents a “burden” at a time when the economy needs to be growing and investing, in addition to going against trends in Europe and demands from regulators to improve solvency, according to the president of the banking association.

According to his calculations, the tax reduces capital by about 50 billion euros, which, if extrapolated to financing, “equates to 250 thousand average mortgages in Spain. There are many factories, many research projects, many, many investment needs and funding.” that, unfortunately, the sector will have to balance. This represents a burden on the economy at a time when it is not necessary,” he added.

Kindelan criticized that its creation also represents a “signal” as it appears that the banking sector “is a toxic sector that has negative externalities on the economy and must pay” when the industry contributed 14.4 to government coffers last year billion dollars. only with corporate tax, not including other specific rates that this industry incurs.

The council criticized that its preparations were not conducted in a “very transparent way for the sector” and that it failed to engage in public consultation during the process, despite delegating its interests to the government through the relevant ministry.

In response to his formulation, he noted that it implies “fragmentation” when Europe demands the exact opposite, namely the integration of financial and capital markets, because of its application and because it will be treated differently depending on the autonomous communities.

Kindelan chided that the executive branch designed it as an emergency tax due to increased profits with higher rates, “but today the situation has changed,” and there is growing geopolitical uncertainty that could affect the macro-financial environment.

In this regard, he pointed to the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House with some statements about economic policies that “will have a very clear impact” on world trade, in relation to open conflicts, for example in Ukraine, “which have an impact on the prices of raw materials, on exchange rates in the markets,” and that markets have not yet been internalized.

Another factor against this that he identified is that it limits financing options when Europe faces “huge” investment needs, reminiscent of the Draghi report which estimated such needs at €800 billion and 75% would need to be covered private sector with the necessary support. banking.

Given this reality, he pointed out that supervisors and organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are asking banks to improve solvency and profitability levels “because there may be curveballs.”