The Bank of Spain, together with Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business and the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), announced joint work with the private sector to develop the securitisation market as a channel to improve business financing, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The institutions also signalled support for a European securitisation platform and the creation of a high-level task force on SME financing to be co-chaired by the three bodies. The high-level task force will bring together public institutions, business associations and financial-sector representatives to prepare an updated assessment of SMEs’ access to financing and develop specific proposals to expand it. It will also draft a proposal on the design of a European securitisation platform as a contribution to the work of the European Competitiveness Lab. In remarks accompanying the initiative, the Bank of Spain highlighted measures to broaden the use of independent ratings via its in-house credit assessment system (ICAS) and pointed to the currently limited role of securitisation in Spain, noting that SME loans represent 7.3% of Spanish loan securitisations compared with 15.9% in the euro area, alongside a broader call for complementary initiatives to the European Commission’s proposed revision of the securitisation framework to help create a genuinely pan-European product.

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