Long-time observers of European banking may feel they have heard
enough about banking alliances. Time and again these have been
launched amid great fanfare only to come to little. BSCH's task is
to convince investors that its alliances contain greater substance.
"Before, these investments were financial investments with a little
flavour added in terms of meetings and exchange of information,"
says José Luis del Valle, BSCH's finance director. "They were
first-generational alliances. Now we are turning them into
second-generational alliances with some co-operation that has to be
translated into the bottom line. At the end of the year we want to
be able to say this alliance added x amount to the bottom line."
Looking further ahead to an era in which cross-border banking
mergers in Europe become reality, the alliances could form the
basis of full-blown partnerships. But right now, as Emilio Botín
has himself said: "Cross-border mergers of equals is a
cock-and-bull...
