“Fixing the rate of variable mortgages is not a measure that can be implemented structurally”. In this way, the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, refused to freeze the price of mortgages as the ministers Yolanda Díaz and Ione Belarra proposed this week. And she warned: “What you should not do is put financial stability at risk”.
The minister defended the code of good practices that opens options for citizens to, for example, not pay commissions for changing a mortgage from a variable to a fixed rate. “The most important banks in the country have committed to alleviate the situation of families,” she asserted. “We negotiated with the representatives of banks, savings banks and credit unions and, in the end, we arrived at a code of good practices that goes far beyond what we have had up to now. We are going to see what route this code of good practices has, but I see it in a positive way that they will be added”, explained Calviño, who insisted that The Government is in constant dialogue with the main financial entities, which are “very aware that people must be brought closer and make life easier for their clients”.
“We are taking measures to alleviate the situation of families, but we cannot change the way a market like the mortgage works. What about the people who signed a fixed-rate mortgage? We cannot only protect a part of the citizens”, he insisted. For this reason, he defended that the code of good practices is a good agreement, although “it is a minimum” and it is necessary to see how it is applied by financial institutions.
banking benefits
Calviño also spoke of the benefits of the banks that are becoming known in recent days and assured that these data only confirm “what is appropriate” of having imposed an extraordinary tax on banks and energy companies. “It is very appropriate and the benefits announced by the bank make it clear that they have enough margin to pay for it without passing it on to their customers. When we see the salaries and bonuses, all the more reason”argument.
In this way, he maintained that the Executive has done very well by establishing a tax that “all of Spanish society considers to be fair.” “We are establishing measures that are a minimum and banks can always go further in supporting their customers. At this moment it is a general clamor that they have to lend their shoulders ”, he highlighted. Along these lines, the minister insisted that, currently, everyone is aware that “it is time to pitch in and work together”. “I think that more and more banks are more aware, not only for their own financial interest but for their reputation”delved.
In this regard, he stressed that banks “perfectly can go further when it comes to supporting their customers” for reasons of their own financial solvency, because he believes that are “the first interested in Spanish families having a good financial situation, a healthy situation and that they can continue paying their mortgages, paying their debts and also investing and consuming”. Along with this, he added “the reasons for the prestige of the financial sector”, which should be the first interested in citizens seeing financial institutions as “part of the aid and of the solution and as an agent and help to be able to weather in the best possible way the accelerated rise in interest rates”. According to Calviño, interest rates are not at “very high” historical levels, but they have risen very quickly, which creates “a very complicated situation for families”.
