Bank of Spain governor says independence must be matched by transparency and signals governance and accountability follow-up after external review

The Bank of Spain published a speech by Governor José Luis Escrivá delivered at Spain’s Court of Auditors’ high-level meeting on external control and independence, setting out how supervisory and control institutions should balance functional autonomy with external oversight and democratic accountability. He argued that independence is legitimate only as delegated power, exercised within clear limits and accompanied by robust transparency and public explanation. The remarks framed independence without control as a route to opacity, and control without independence as a risk to the technical content of an institution’s mandate. Escrivá pointed to expanding central bank functions beyond monetary policy, including bank supervision and conduct, macroprudential policy, cash and payment systems, and participation in public debt management, as increasing the need for accountability mechanisms tailored to each role. For the Bank of Spain, he cited Article 130 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Spain’s Law on Autonomy of the Bank of Spain as the legal anchors for independence, alongside accountability tools such as parliamentary appearances and recurring public reports including the Annual Report and Financial Stability Report. He linked these themes to the Bank of Spain’s Strategic Plan 2030 and to a 2024–2025 self-assessment marking the autonomy law’s 30th anniversary, where an external review by three international experts identified areas for improvement that the Governing Council has taken on for analysis. The work focuses on strengthening governance, including more collegial models and reviewing composition and appointment rules, and on enhancing transparency and accountability, with some changes possible internally and others requiring legislative action.