The European Commissioner in charge of Financial Services and the Union of Savings and Investment made this statement at the New Economy forum in Brussels when asked about the takeover bids by BBVA for Sabadell in Spain and by Unicredit for BPM in Italy. In both cases, the respective national governments are exploring the possibility of imposing conditions on the transactions, although she declined to comment on the specific cases.
“The rules that apply to bank mergers, whether cross-border or within each Member State, are very clear: for significant banks, the European Central Bank assesses from a prudential perspective whether the merger is appropriate or not, and then the Competition authorities evaluate whether it raises issues or concerns that need to be addressed within the scope of competition. And that’s it,” she said.
“So supposedly no other powers should be used,” added the commissioner, emphasizing that she cannot comment on “particular situations.”
In general, Maria Luís Albuquerque recalled the European Commission’s belief that more cross-border bank mergers should occur, as they are the expected outcome of the banking union and the homogeneity of rules within the bloc and would generate “obvious” synergies.
The statements come on the eve of the Spanish Council of Ministers’ decision on imposing additional conditions on BBVA “for reasons of general interest” to proceed with its takeover bid for Sabadell, which was announced 13 months ago and has faced opposition from the government from the outset.
The acquisition received approval from the ECB in 2024 and, in April, from the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), which approved it with conditions to avoid risks identified during its assessment.
Among these risks were the potential worsening of commercial conditions for individuals, companies, and access to ATMs, financial exclusion in some municipalities and rural areas, as well as a reduction in credit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in certain areas.
After the government decided to bring the operation to the Council of Ministers, the Commission indicated that it sees no reason for the Spanish executive to block or reject the takeover bid and suggested it should align with the CNMC’s conditions.
Similarly, community sources then recalled that the Community Executive is studying whether the Spanish government’s measures are compatible with European Union (EU) law.
In the case of Unicredit and BPM, the Italian government invoked the so-called “golden power,” which would allow it to impose restrictions on the operation that received ‘green light’ from the European Commission, with conditions, last week. Among the announced measures would be Unicredit’s exit from the Russian market.
