Publicaciones

The share of public debt in the Spanish banks’ asset mix has been increasing in recent years, reaching 15.4% in 2024, in tandem with the run-up in interest rates. That is 2.5pp above the EU average. Forty-eight percent of this debt is Spanish public debt. This share is below the European average, reflecting the Spanish banks’ strong international footprint. A point in favour of the Spanish banks is the growing volume of public debt carried at amortised cost (67.2% vs. 58.6% in the EU), ring-fencing it from market fluctuations. In the Spanish banks’ domestic businesses, public debt has increased its share of total assets from 6.66% in 2019 to 7.79% in 2024, and from 76.4% of total fixed-income holdings to 90.7%, with the interest earned on these investments multiplying 2.5x.