Public-Private Collaboration in the Deployment of NextGen and the Value Added by the Banking Sector

José María Méndez, General Director of CECA

The crisis caused by the coronavirus disrupted something that seemed immutable: our daily lives. What we took for granted became uncertain, and as a society, we risked losing our cohesion. In this context, the entities affiliated with CECA, putting into practice their profound social vocation, established a series of measures (mortgage moratoriums, elimination of commissions, advance payments of pensions and SEPE subsidies, guaranteed loans…) aimed at alleviating the situation of the most vulnerable groups. Having overcome that difficult phase, we now find ourselves in a different moment, where the economic context has turned into an opportunity to transform our productive fabric through the Next Generation initiative of the European Union. Since the implementation of the National Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which articulates the arrival of these funds in Spain, the banking sector has conveyed to the Public Administrations that our role could be of great utility here. Firstly, due to our high degree of penetration (we have a network of more than 23,000 bank offices, of which over 10,000 belong to the CECA sector). Secondly, because of our expert knowledge, both of large companies and of SMEs in various sectors of activity, as well as the most suitable financial instruments to ensure that the funds reach the real economy. And thirdly, due to our experience in analyzing investment projects and our extensive digital infrastructure serving clients, which would facilitate the process of distributing the funds. A channeling task that, in combination with additional financial measures, could generate a multiplying effect aimed at maximizing the impact of these resources on the national economy.

Collaboration between the public and private sectors is, without a doubt, one of the keys to ensuring the correct arrival of these resources and the transformation of our productive fabric. An even greater challenge at this moment since Public Administrations are facing the challenge posed by decentralization and, therefore, the structuring of these resources throughout the territory. The banking network can contribute to ensuring a homogeneous treatment, promoting equal opportunities, regardless of geographical location.

In this context, we are collaborating with the Government to seek the best way for the sector to cooperate in the deployment of the second phase of the aid program, which involves the granting of European loans amounting to up to 84 billion euros.

We are facing a unique opportunity to advance as a country and address the structural problems we carry. In this regard, the banking sector is willing to put its best efforts at the service of society. The goal is simple, yet ambitious: to build a better tomorrow that includes us all and lays the economic and social foundations for the future. We have much at stake in this endeavor as a country and even as members of a European supranational project, but I am confident that by working together we will make this program a success, facilitating the sustainable transformation of the Spanish economy.