Credit institutions and their groups are currently governed by two sets of accounting standards:
The first is national legislation. In accordance with Law 10/2014 of 26 June 2014
and in implementing the Spanish Commercial Code, the power to establish the accounting standards for banks and groups that do not have securities admitted to an official listing lies with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, which delegated this power to the Banco de España through Ministerial Order of 31 March 1989.
Through Banco de España Circular 4/2017 of 27 November 2017 to credit institutions on public and confidential financial reporting rules and formats, the Bank has been able to maintain its strategy of ensuring compatibility between the accounting regime applicable to Spanish credit institutions and the principles and criteria established by International Financial Reporting Standards adopted by the European Union (IFRS-EU).
The second set are the accounting standards for groups that have issued securities admitted to an official listing on a European market, which are established through EU Regulations.
The Banco de España has also been authorised to establish and amend the accounting standards and formats of public and confidential financial statements for specialised lending institutions, payment institutions and electronic money institutions. Accordingly, in order to maintain a regime for these institutions that is compatible with IFRS-EU, the Banco de España approved Circular 4/2019 of 26 November 2019 to specialised lending institutions on public and confidential financial reporting rules and formats, and Circular 5/2020 of 25 November 2020 to payment institutions and electronic money institutions on public and confidential financial reporting rules and formats. These circulars draw on the accounting policies for credit institutions, either by setting similar criteria or by referring directly to the rules of Circular 4/2017.
Lastly, pursuant to the first additional provision of Spanish Audit Law 22/2015 of 20 July 2015, Spanish credit institutions and specialised lending institutions must submit their accounts for external audit. The third additional provision of this law requires credit institutions and specialised lending institutions to have a Board Audit Committee.