Armour-plated against approaches
The cover of a recent edition of Portuguese magazine Exame announced the failure of Iberianization. Portugal and Spain, it suggested, remain stubbornly apart, and attempts to forge closer links between the two countries have amounted to little. As if on cue, the latest opportunity to build a meaningful relationship between leading Spanish and Portuguese banks disappeared.
On May 17 it was announced that an agreement and cross-shareholding between Spain's new banking superpower, Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH), and Portugal's largest private bank, Banco Comercial Português (BCP), was to be dissolved. The following day each bank repurchased its shares from the other. Iberianization, it seems, failed again.
It was an outcome that found favour with local investors. The prospect of a joint venture between BCP and BSCH had stalled all other merger speculation in the Portuguese banking sector, helping send banking shares into a prolonged decline....
