The territorial expansion as a motivating factor of the restructuring of the Spanish financial system: the case of saving banks and credit cooperatives

Abstract

The current financial international crisis is acting as catalyst of a deep process of change in the Spanish banking sector which is affecting also the credit institutions of the Social Economy: saving banks and credit cooperatives. These entities share a model of "retail" banking, centered on the nearness to the client, that has been accompanied in the last years of a strong process of geographical expansion which has supposed an oversizing of its network of branches. Nevertheless, as a consequence of the current circumstances of the Spanish economy in general, and of the bank system especially, the above mentioned strategy of internal development does not seem to be sustainable, being necessary that a resizing of the sector takes place, to see the confidence recovered in the system and in order to be considered again of the most solvent of the world. Considering that, the aim of this investigation is to analyze the different strategies of territorial expansion developed by the above mentioned entities with the aim to know its current situation and to understand why the restructuring of the sector is necessary. For it there has been used both the descriptive and econometric analysis, using the information that present the Spanish Federation of Savings banks (CECA) and the National Union of Credit cooperatives (UNACC) in his statistical yearbooks.