Spain: CNMC: Rising costs or loss of quality “would be concerning for banking concentration”

The president of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), José María Marín Quemada, has stated that banking concentration is only a concern for his institution if it brings about an increase in costs or a drop in the quality of goods and services.

“Concentrations generally concern the CNMC when they are translated into cost increases with loss of quality of goods or services for citizens. It is then when the competition authority of Spain or any country in the world begins to worry.”
“The companies are due to their income account, be they banks, electricity generators or oil refineries” and “the income statement is fed by adequate prices.” “If concentrations prevent these prices from being adequate and they become abusive, then they cause concern.”

Currently, the sector is at “a level of concentration that the financial sector in Spain has never had before now” said Marín Quemada, who has seen the sector go from “having many inefficient institutions to fewer, more efficient institutions.”

Full Content: El Español

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