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).
Leadership
1José Luis EscriváGovernorsince 2024
Full board
Organisation (FY2025)
Total staff3,661Whole institution — includes monetary policy, banknote production, treasury services and payment systems oversight alongside supervision
Supervision & oversight staff944Supervisory functions across DGs and General Secretariat; ≈⅓ of total bank staff; gender-balanced
Budget€708mFY2025 (whole institution)
Supervised entities (end-2025)
Credit institution groups135Operating via permanent establishment
— of which significant Spanish groups1089% market share (SSM direct supervision)
— less significant institutions/groups565% market share
— foreign subsidiaries/branches groups696% market share
Consolidated banking assets€4.5 trillion63% credit investment; 41% of assets from foreign business
Sector metricsROE 14% · CET1 13.9% · NPL 2.4%NPL lowest since 2008; capital highest since SSM creation
Supervisory activity 2025
SREP add-ons — significant entitiesP2R 1.74% · P2G 0.73%Averages; below SSM-wide averages
SREP add-ons — LSIsP2R 1.61% · P2G 0.8%Weighted / simple averages; slight reduction vs prior year
On-site inspections — significant institutions17 + 13 model investigationsSpanish SIs; plus 22 SSM inspections led by BdE across the euro area
Inspections — less significant institutions18Plus 10 requirement/recommendation letters
Inspections — other entities14PIs, EMIs, SGRs, appraisal companies, EFCs etc.
Actions vs unauthorised activity54"Reserva de actividad" enforcement, similar to 2024
Severe payment incidents notified26PSPs, 2025; operational (non-malicious) causes predominant
Enforcement 2025
Sanctions>€49mCalendar year 2025; responsible lending, tied insurance sales, unauthorised ownership changes, governance
Macroprudential
FY2025Countercyclical capital buffer0.5% → 1%Announced Oct 2025, binding 1 October 2026
Santander G-SII buffer1% for 2027
Notable 2025
Two-regulator MiCA split for SpainUnder 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 outperformanceSpanish significant banks outperformed the European average in both the 2025 EBA and ECB stress tests.
DLT Pilot supportIssued 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 impactMonitored 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 LSIsIntroduced multi-year SREP methodology for less significant institutions to deliver more proportionate supervision.
Key legislation
4Law 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 736/2019PSD2 transposition — payment institutions
MiCA implementation (Spain)Banco de España — competent authority for ART/EMT issuers
Registers, portals and publications