Bankinter S.A

Spain's competition authority has started disciplinary action involving the country's six listed banks, including Santander and BBVA, over suspected anti-competitive conduct in the mortgage sector. The CNMC is looking into whether some executives publicly outlined their banks' future commercial policies, especially on fixed-rate mortgage pricing, which the regulator said would have allowed entities to anticipate competitors' future behaviour. The case also covers Caixabank, Unicaja, Bankinter and Sabadell, none of which commented. The CNMC noted that opening the proceedings does not imply any conclusion, and it has up to 24 months to issue a final ruling.