Other supervised institutions
The Banco de España also supervises other institutions, including specialised lending institutions, mutual guarantee and reguarantee companies, foreign currency exchange establishments, payment institutions, electronic money institutions and valuation companies.
Specialised lending institutions
Specialised lending institutions are establishments which perform credit operations in very specific fields: ‘leasing’ (financial leasing with the option to buy), ‘factoring’ (transfer of a credit portfolio), consumer credit, mortgage lending, cards and guarantees, among others.
Law 5/2015
contains the new legal procedure for specialised lending institutions, arising from Law 10/2014 . By conforming with this new regulation, specialised credit institutions lose their credit institution status but remain within the perimeter of financial supervision and regulation.
Mutual guarantee and reguarantee companies
Mutual guarantee companies are financial institutions whose corporate purpose is to grant personal guarantees by any legally accepted means other than a surety bond in favour of their shareholders, which are normally small and medium sized companies (SMEs), for operations that they carry out in the course of business in the companies that they own.
They are essentially regulated by Law 1/1994 of 11 March 1994 and by Royal Decree 2345/1996, of 8 November 1996.
Reguarantee companies are financial companies whose corporate purpose is to provide counter-guarantees for guarantee transactions by mutual guarantee companies.
They are essentially regulated by Law 1/1994 of 11 March and by Royal Decree 1644/1997, of 31 de October 1997.
Foreign currency 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 Banco de España according to Royal Decree 2660/1998.
Payment institutions
Payment institutions are legal persons that have obtained authorisation and that carry out, in a professional capacity, payment services in euros as well as in other currencies.
Payment institutions are supervised and controlled by Banco de España according to Royal Decree-Law 19/2018, of 23 November 2018.
Electronic money institutions
Electronic money institutions are those legal persons other than credit institutions that are authorised to issue electronic money, which is an accepted form of payment in companies other than the issuing entity.
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 Law 2/1981, Law 3/1994, Royal Decree 775/1997, Royal Decree 716/2009, and Banco de España Circular 3/2014.