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The mergers of CaixaBank with Bankia and Unicaja with Liberbank led to a much more unbalanced and concentrated banking structure. With approximately *** billion U.S. dollars in assets, the bank resulting from the merger of CaixaBank and Bankia became the most important entity in Spain, followed at some distance by BBVA. Along with Banco Santander, this triad led a landscape in which the weight of medium-sized companies like Bankinter or Kutxabank was much smaller than that of their large competitors.

Impact of COVID-19

In 2020, COVID-19 and the need to make investments profitable accelerated the shift from a business model based on reducing the number of branches to one focused on enhancing digitalization. After the significant losses recorded in 2020, banks made major staff adjustments in 2021 and closed dozens of branches, which positively impacted the use of digital banking.

A long history of mergers

In the last decade, Spain has been affected by two economic crises that have shaken the national financial system. This has served as a catalyst for the various merger processes that took place during that period. The first major episode of mergers and acquisitions occurred in 2010 and involved savings banks as the main players. Afterwards, other series of operations shaped the market until it took on a form very similar to the current one, including the absorption of Banco Popular by Banco Santander and the purchase of EVO Banco by Bankinter. According to sector data for 2020, the banking system had a total of * branches and employed ** workers at that time.