Spain’s competition authority has started disciplinary action involving the country’s six listed banks, including Santander and BBVA, over suspected anti-competitive conduct in the mortgage sector.
The CNMC is looking into whether some executives publicly outlined their banks’ future commercial policies, especially on fixed-rate mortgage pricing. “Such statements would have allowed entities in the sector to anticipate the future behaviour of their competitors,” the regulator said in a statement
The case also covers Caixabank, Unicaja, Bankinter and Sabadell. None of the lenders commented. Some bank executives have described efforts to secure customers as “irrational”, with certain mortgage rates dropping below market levels, reported Reuters.
Data from the European Central Bank showed the average Spanish mortgage rate stood at 2.81% in April, compared with 3.44% across the euro zone. At the same time, Spanish banks are among those paying the lowest returns on one-year deposits. The average rate was 1.78%, below the euro zone average of 1.87%, as well as 2.25% in Italy and 2.42% in the Netherlands.