Largest banks in Spain 2024, by assets

As of September 2024, Banco Santander led Spain's banking sector with 1.8 trillion euros in assets, significantly ahead of BBVA and CaixaBank, which held approximately 769 billion euros and 520 billion euros in assets, respectively. The Spanish banking landscape is characterized by a substantial asset gap between leading and medium-sized banks.

Banking assets

Loans and credits constitute some of the most important assets in the banking industry. The volume of lending to households, companies and other banks in Spain decreased over the last decade, falling from 2.4 to two trillion euros between 2010 and 2023. Other outstanding banking assets are deposits in central banks and other credit institutions, and financial instruments. As for the latter, Spanish credit institutions make up one of the largest buyers of government debt. A high demand for Spanish Treasury bills and bonds, along with investor confidence and an improved credit rating, have been driving bond yields down. The average yield of long-term government bonds plummeted after 2012, and by 2024, it was approximately 2.96 percent.

Bank solvency and liquidity

Solvency and liquidity are both crucial indicators of the banking system’s health, and assets and liabilities play an important role in both of them. Kutxabank and Unicaja were the most solvent Spanish banks as of June 2023, based on the CET1 fully-loaded capital ratio, whereas Santander ranked ninth. As for liquidity, the ratio between loans and deposits (LTD) decreased substantially between 2010 and 2023, from 149 to 100.74 percent. A lower LTD ratio indicates a good degree of liquidity that allows banks to respond to customer requests for fund requirements.