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Torres (BBVA): “European recovery funds must reach SMEs, the self-employed and families”

The president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, believes that the role of banks in the management of European funds would be crucial for the money to reach small companies and families, preventing it from being distributed only between infrastructure and environment megaprojects concentrated in large multinationals.

The Madrid banker focuses specifically on the renovation of homes. “We are working with authorities here in Spain, on products and solutions that allow this to be the case, so that some programs, such as housing rehabilitation, are channeled through the financial sector,” he detailed in a self-interview published on the bank’s website.

Torres thus confirms the information published this Monday by EL MUNDO that details the efforts made by the sector before the Presidency of the Government itself to position itself as a relevant actor in the distribution of funds.

The banks consider that their capillarity and their experience in project analysis would be very relevant in the deal. As an example, they point to their role in the distribution of ICO funds carried out during the worst months of the pandemic. “We can take advantage of the capacity we have, the capillarity and the arrival to channel the funds and, along the way, we can also amplify them with financing, which we can contribute by advancing, for example, part of the funds or adding investment private “, they comment.

The chairman of BBVA places sustainability, the fight against climate change, social inclusion and digitization as major objectives of the funds. “And once those big objectives have been set, with metrics that we can set, that they be programs with a broader spectrum, not so much directed at a company or a specific actor, that reach small and medium-sized companies and self-employed or to families or to single-family homes or to multi-family homes that have to rehabilitate homes, “he remarked.

In his opinion, the public initiative should be reinforced by private funds that increase the volume of European funds. “May the use of funds rest heavily on private initiative, which is the one that is shown to have more criteria on which projects make the most sense and which projects have less. Always with transparent, agile schemes , competitive in the allocation of resources, very important to make good use of these funds of such an important magnitude “, he concludes.

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