The governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, has warned that the European commitment to raise expense in defense and security “It will require considerable additional budget efforts” For the State. To reach 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in … These items, Spain needs to spend about 6,000 million euros that will leave the budget, which means to detract that amount of other items or that does not compute in the calculation of the deficit, as it seems that the European Union will allow.
Given this situation, Escrivá has put the role of the financial sector on the table to promote this type of investments. “This commitment raises important challenges,” he said in a day of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB) on the role of the banking sector in the European future. “Banking financing to the defense sector is at very small levels.” In Spain, he recalled, the credit specifically destined for the manufacture of weapons and ammunition has not exceeded at any time 0.1% of the total bank credit during the last two decades.
In this sense, the governor of the Bank of Spain has indicated that the role of risk capital must be a priority in Europe. Also in relation to the Union of capital markets, which is “an essential pillar for the financial future of Europe.”
Escrivá considers “essential” that the European financial sector assumes an active role in these transformation processes. «All these transformative processes require Decided commitment of the private sectorand we cannot afford complacency or inertia, “he said. And he has insisted that the future of Europe will depend, to a large extent, »on our ability to act with strategic vision, anticipating the challenges and fully taking advantage of the opportunities we have ahead.” That is why he has urged to »take that decisive step«.
In that same forum, those responsible for the two great banks in Spain have also intervened: the CEO of Santander, Héctor Grisi, and the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres. Both have insisted that Europe must strengthen the role of investment to achieve these new technology and security objectives required by the geopolitical context. Grisi has pointed out that “fragmentation is one of the realities for which Europe has not evolved in the last 20 years” against the United States. And Torres has affirmed that for Europe to invest more, “we must invest in infrastructure and strategic autonomy.” “The investment is financed by banks, but we need regulation to accompany,” he said in the forum.
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