Banking Supervision

Financial auxiliaries

The Banco de España also supervises financial auxiliaries, which include mutual guarantee companies, foreign-exchange establishments, payment institutions and valuation companies.

Mutual Guarantee Companies

These are commercial companies that exist to provide guarantees by any legally accepted means other than a surety bond in favour of their shareholders, which are normally small and medium sized companies, for the operations that they carry out in the course of business in the companies that they own.

They are mainly regulated by Ley 1/1994 of 11 March; by Banco de España Circular 5/2008; and, for the purposes of credit risk, by appendix IX of Banco de España Circular 4/2004.

• Regulación básica de las sociedades de garantía recíproca

Foreign exchange establishments

These are establishments open to the public which solely purchase foreign bank notes or traveller cheques with payment in euros.

Foreign-exchange establishments are supervised and controlled by the Banco de España according to RD 2660/1998 .

• Regulación básica de los establecimientos de cambio de moneda

Payment institutions

These are natural or legal persons that have obtained authorisation and provide professional payment services in all foreign currencies - not only euros or other national currencies in the European Union (EU).

Payment institutions are supervised and controlled by the Banco de España according to Ley 16/2009, de 13 de noviembre .

Valuation companies

They are authorised to make property valuations for certain types of financial institutions, and in particular those associated with the mortgage market. They generally certify the value of properties for certain purposes, such as granting financing with mortgage collateral or the valuation of property that forms part of the assets of insurance companies or pension funds.

They are registered and supervised by the Banco de España, and the basic legislation regulating them is Ley 2/1981 , Ley 3/1994 and Real Decreto 775/1997.

• Regulación básica de las sociedades de tasación