Spanish Banks
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Spanish Banks

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Wednesday, 19 Nov 2008

Banks in Spain

There are, as you might expect, numerous banks and building societies throughout Spain. This page lists some of the more well known banks, particularly those in popular expat destinations where they are used to dealing with non Spanish clients.

Typically a Spanish bank will offer all the services that you can expect from a UK high street bank: savings and current accounts, loans, mortgages, currency transfer. The banks below also specialise in helping expats with their finances and offer non resident accounts and English speaking staff.

Until the recent economic crisis banks in Spain were keen to offer mortgages on very favourable terms for the lender. The Spanish property boom of the last 5 or 6 years has seen the number of new homes on the Costas increase dramatically and banks were keen to cash in on this trend.

Spanish Bank Mortgages

As with UK banks, the credit crisis has seen most Spanish banks tighten their lending criteria and reduce the loan to value amount on offer. Having said that, Spanish banks have always been considered more conservative than their UK counterparts and obtaining any kind of credit has usually been more difficult than in the UK.

This more risk-averse strategy has seen one Spanish bank in particular enjoy success despite the current financial climate: Banco Santander has become one of the largest banking companies in Europe with over 80 million clients. They took ownership of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and the Alliance & Leicester in recent months.