Mergers between Spain's savings banks were the landmark event in the country's financial sector in 2010, Javier Aríztegui, the deputy governor of the Bank of Spain, said on 17 December.

Speaking at a conference organized by Caja Granada, a bank, Aríztegui explained that many of these agreements, which have taken the form of institutional protection schemes, were much more than that. The schemes have been designed to facilitate merger between savings banks, which, given their business form and