Fragility of the Spanish Banking System and Financial Exclusion: Lessons Learned From the Global Crisis and New Challenges for the 21st Century Banking Sector

Abstract

[Abstract] Since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007, Spain entered a period of wide-ranging economic and social changes. Spanish financial institutions have been implicated in the real-estate bubble, and they were highly exposed to uncertainty and the steady decline of real estate businesses. As a result, the Spanish banking system has undergone a major transformation process. It has been necessary to restructure many institutions, so today the sector is smaller, and it has been forced to rethink its business strategy to survive. The social cost of all these changes has been particularly high, and financial exclusion has increased in Spain from the beginning of the crisis. This chapter shows the changes that have taken place in the Spanish banking system from the beginning of the crisis, the social implications ensued, and the challenges currently faced by the new banking industry that has emerged since the crisis.