De Cos says that "is not easy" establish banking taxes that do not affect the economy

BARCELONA, July 26. () –

The Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, has argued this Tuesday that “it is not easy” to establish taxes on banks that do not affect the volume of credit, interest rates and financial stability.

He said this at the Vanguard Forums session ‘Inflation and growth: challenges for economic policy’ in La Pedrera, where he recalled that the Bank of Spain belongs to the Eurosystem and that the European Central Bank (ECB) has to issue an opinion about.

The head of the Spanish central bank has explained that in past episodes the ECB has focused, when assessing this type of tax, on two issues that have to do with its mandate: monetary policy and financial stability.

“What is requested from the perspective of a central bank is that a potential tax does not affect the volume of credit, interest rates or negatively affect financial stability,” he added.

He has refused to assess the tax because he assures that they still do not have details and therefore he sees it difficult to know ‘ex ante’ if the requirements that the ECB is looking after are going to be met, and he has said that the community bank’s opinion has generally been negative.