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Bankinter SA CFO Gloria Ortiz said on an Oct. 22 conference call that the third quarter was marked by "sustained pressure in the wholesale market," and financial institutions in Spain are trying to adapt to the new economic environment.
"If the wholesale markets continue to be thin, as they are today, for longer-term finance, this means that the deposit war will continue," said Ortiz, speaking after the release of the bank's third-quarter results earlier in the day. "During 2011, there are risks that those two markets [wholesale and deposits] will still have higher spreads and that we will see some further margin compression."
The executive said the markets have reopened slightly following the results of the stress tests, but they have "reset at much higher levels." She added that the Spanish financial system has been "particularly sensitive...