'Foment del Treball' asks the Government to "paralyze" the BBVA takeover bid for Sabadell

The president of Foment del Treball , Josep Sánchez Llibre, has asked the government to "paralyze" BBVA's takeover bid for Banco Sabadell following its approval by the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC). The employers' association argues that the operation would reduce credit available to SMEs by €70 billion .

"A resolution of this magnitude should be subject to a more thorough and in-depth study of its credit implications," he said in a statement to the media ahead of the annual meeting of the Cercle d'Economia .

In this regard, he stated that the resolution is "hasty," as well as "insufficient and disappointing."

According to the employers' association's calculations, if the transaction goes ahead, half of the money Banco Sabadell provides to the productive sector will be lost, a sum of 75 billion euros.

Sánchez Llibre has pointed out that the conditions adopted by the CNMC will harm 90% of Spanish SMEs and 60% of Catalan SMEs . Among other reasons, he argued that companies with a turnover of more than €50 million or those with credit lines with entities other than BBVA and Banco Sabadel will be excluded from maintaining the credit.

He also criticized the fact that only the Catalan bank's outstanding credit is guaranteed, but not the Basque bank's, and that there are only credit commitments for 166 postal codes throughout Spain, 4% of the total.

Following the Competition Authority's ruling, the transaction moves to Phase 3 and will now be reviewed by the Government. The Ministry of Economy has 15 days to evaluate it and decide whether to refer it to the Council of Ministers, which could potentially boycott it by invoking Article 10 of the Competition Law.