An established banking market, Spain is home to a number of huge international banks. For all of a consumer’s banking needs, there are plenty of options, but which are the largest banks in Spain?
As with many markets, the banking sector in Spain has its ‘Big Four’: Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, and Bankia.
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Santander
Spain’s largest bank is headquartered in the region from which it takes its name, Santander. It will be familiar to banking customers of many regions as it has arms in the UK, North America, Singapore, South America, and Africa. It is not only one of the largest banks in Spain, but one of the largest banks in the world.
Its rapid expansion was due to some major acquisitions, such as Abbey National in 2004 as well as Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester in the UK in 2008. In 2010, it acquired Bank Zachodni from Allied Irish Banks. The most recent major capture was of Spain’s Banco Popular in June 2017.
In its most recent results presentation, it displayed net profit in the first quarter of 2018 of €677m, a rise of 27% year-on-year. In 2017, it was reported that Santander had 133 million customers worldwide. Its huge international presence makes it perfect for expats.
BBVA
Formed from the merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and Argentaria in 1999, BBVA is now considered to be the second largest bank in Spain.
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By GlobalDataFrom 2007, it began an initiative to digitally transform the bank which has seen immensely positive results. The BBVA Group posted a net attributable profit of €3.52bn for 2017, up by only a percent compared to 2016.
Some of the developments in the bank include its embrace of open banking and open APIs, which has led to multiple new products being offered to customers. The bank’s deals include the acquisition of Simple and Finland-based start-up Holvi. It also has close to a 39% stake in British start-up Atom Bank.
CaixaBank
Based in Barcelona, CaixaBank is a large institution with more than 37,000 employees and 5,300 branches across Spain and Portugal. In addition, its digital client base is 56% of its total client base.
It considers itself to be the main banking relationship for 26.7% of Spaniards and the leader in online and mobile banking in Spain. Currently with 15.7 million customers (13.8 million in Spain and 1.9 million in Portugal), it can’t be doubted that CaixaBank has an outstanding presence in the country.
Bankia
Seven Spanish savings banks came together to form Bankia in 2010. While it has stumbled, having to be partially nationalised in 2012 by the Spanish government, it held €179.1bn in assets in 2017.
The bank has big plans. It wants to distribute more than €2.5bn to shareholders over the next three years, which is twice the €1.16bn given out in the four years previous.
In addition, it expects a profit of €1.3bn by 2020, 62% higher than in 2017.
While these are described as the “Big Four” in Spain, there are plenty of others in the country.
List of major banks in Spain (alphabetical)
- Banca March
- Banca Pueyo
- BBVA
- Banco Caixa Geral
- Bancofar
- Banco Pastor
- Banco Popular Español
- Banco Sabadell
- Banco Santander
- Bankia
- Bankinter
- Bankoa
- CaixaBank
- EVO Banco
- Novo Banco
- Renta 4 Banco
- Targobank
Overall, Spain has a wide berth of banks to suit every consumers needs, whether they are from the country themselves or expats. The largest banks in Spain cater for every customer and are in an exciting period of growth, particularly in digital services.
