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Spain · EU member

Banco de España

Banco de España · Central bankMeasured

70Activity Indexmethodology →

Employees

3,661

· total · 944 for supervision

FY2025

Annual budget

€708m

· FY2025

FY2025

Supervised entities

135

· credit institution groups

FY2025

Overview

Banco de España is Spain's central bank and its prudential, conduct and macroprudential supervisor for credit institutions, payment institutions and e-money issuers — the licensing authority that pairs with CNMV on the securities side. Its supervisory and oversight functions employ 944 professionals, nearly a third of the entire bank. In 2025 it imposed over €49 million in sanctions, supervised 135 credit institution groups holding €4.5 trillion in consolidated assets, and raised the countercyclical capital buffer from 0.5% to 1%. Everything below is Banco de España's own data, from its FY2025 supervision report (Memoria de Supervisión).

Regulated sectors

BanksPayment institutionsE-money institutionsCredit institutions

Leadership

  • José Luis EscriváGovernor · since 2024

Full board →

Figures as published by Banco de España for FY2025. Source: Memoria de Supervisión 2025 (Spanish; English summary) (Published April 2026). Data as of 31 December 2025. Supplementary: Memoria de Supervisión 2025 (full PDF).

Organisation (FY2025)

ItemValue
Total staff
3,661
Whole institution — includes monetary policy, banknote production, treasury services and payment systems oversight alongside supervision
Supervision & oversight staff
944
Supervisory functions across DGs and General Secretariat; ≈⅓ of total bank staff; gender-balanced
Budget
€708m
FY2025 (whole institution)

Supervised entities (end-2025)

ItemValue
Credit institution groups
135
Operating via permanent establishment
— of which significant Spanish groups
10
89% market share (SSM direct supervision)
— less significant institutions/groups
56
5% market share
— foreign subsidiaries/branches groups
69
6% market share
Consolidated banking assets
€4.5 trillion
63% credit investment; 41% of assets from foreign business
Sector metrics
ROE 14% · CET1 13.9% · NPL 2.4%
NPL lowest since 2008; capital highest since SSM creation

Supervisory activity 2025

ItemValue
SREP add-ons — significant entities
P2R 1.74% · P2G 0.73%
Averages; below SSM-wide averages
SREP add-ons — LSIs
P2R 1.61% · P2G 0.8%
Weighted / simple averages; slight reduction vs prior year
On-site inspections — significant institutions
17 + 13 model investigations
Spanish SIs; plus 22 SSM inspections led by BdE across the euro area
Inspections — less significant institutions
18
Plus 10 requirement/recommendation letters
Inspections — other entities
14
PIs, EMIs, SGRs, appraisal companies, EFCs etc.
Actions vs unauthorised activity
54
"Reserva de actividad" enforcement, similar to 2024
Severe payment incidents notified
26
PSPs, 2025; operational (non-malicious) causes predominant

Enforcement 2025

ItemValue
Sanctions
>€49m
Calendar year 2025; responsible lending, tied insurance sales, unauthorised ownership changes, governance

Macroprudential

ItemValue
Countercyclical capital buffer
0.5% → 1%
Announced Oct 2025, binding 1 October 2026
Santander G-SII buffer
1% for 2027
O-SIIs identified
4

Notable 2025

ItemValue
Two-regulator MiCA split for Spain
Under MiCA, Banco de España is Spain's competent authority for issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, while CNMV handles CASPs.
Stress-test outperformance
Spanish significant banks outperformed the European average in both the 2025 EBA and ECB stress tests.
DLT Pilot support
Issued a favourable (non-binding) report enabling Securitize's authorisation as a DLT securities settlement system under the EU DLT Pilot Regime — at CNMV's request.
April 2025 outage impact
Monitored the impact of the 28 April 2025 nationwide power outage on Spain's payment systems; completed assessments of the SNCE and of FXS, a new payment-versus-payment FX settlement system live since July 2025.
Multi-year SREP for LSIs
Introduced multi-year SREP methodology for less significant institutions to deliver more proportionate supervision.

Key legislation

  • Law 13/1994 (Autonomy of the Banco de España)

    Founding statute

  • Law 10/2014 (Ordering, Supervision and Solvency of Credit Institutions)

    Banking law (CRD/CRR)

  • Royal Decree-Law 19/2018 / RD 736/2019

    PSD2 transposition — payment institutions

  • MiCA implementation (Spain)

    Banco de España — competent authority for ART/EMT issuers

Public registers

Application portals

Recent publications

Data as of 31 December 2025 · Source: www.bde.es + ComplyBridge researchActivity Index methodology →

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