The Spanish Derby

摘要

Francisco gonzalez insists the Spanish bank he chairs, BBVA, is very different from its larger rival, Santander. The comment came moments after Santander stole his thunder by announcing impressive headline results-a week ear-ly-in the middle of Mr Gonzalez's own presentation of the bank's 2008 accounts.rnSantander says a market regulator forced it to make the disclosure, but Mr Gonzalez was unimpressed. Santander, led by its chairman, Emilio Botin, reported an impressive €8.9 billion ($13.06 billion) net profit in 2008, and is paying more than half of that figure to shareholders in cash. bbva, meanwhile, is paying its 2008 dividend partly in shares, and prudently plans to cut the payout ratio for 2009.rnRivalries aside, the banks created a combined €14.3 billion in net profit in a year when many of their banking peers around the world were on their knees. This was not a coincidence. Both banks focus mostly on retail banking, and avoided investments in toxic off-balance-sheet exposures at the behest of the Bank of Spain.