Financial stability

Due to the nature of its operations, banking is one of the key sectors in a country's economy, as a large part of savings, investment and finance are channelled through it. For this reason, banks are subject to special surveillance through regulation and banking supervision.

Government regulation is intended to preserve the proper functioning of financial entities, strengthen their resilience to adverse events and harmonise the interests of the parties directly concerned - banks, savers and investors - with general interests.

Supervision, then, is designed for the purpose of verifying compliance with specific banking regulations and, in particular, those related to solvency, the accounting standards that banks must apply and the rules on customer protection and information transparency to markets. In Spain, this role primarily falls to Banco de España.