With falling rates in Europe and the US, and Turkey still in trouble, only Latin America – especially Mexico – can keep up BBVA’s spirits.

Spanish bank profitability will sink even further as left-wing populists Podemos enter a coalition with the socialist party, making a private-sector future for Bankia ever more remote.

Regulate big tech or deregulate banks.

Banks must continuously adapt.

Master of the merger of the 2000s.

Digital banking blurs boundaries.

Spanish-based group will struggle to overcome fall-out of recruitment U-turn, while Orcel’s situation raises broader questions for banks’ hiring and compensation strategies.

Banco Santander’s board has botched the appointment of the bank's next CEO in the clumsiest way possible.

Investors will be watching closely for indications of what Andrea Orcel will do as chief executive.

As Carlos Torres Vila and Onur Genc take over, BBVA’s markets may still surprise more than its strategy.

Scandals and losses are ending the co-dependency between European banks and retail shareholders, highlighting the conflict of interest in relying on depositors for capital – and showing up a barrier to Europe’s new bail-in framework. A less parochial, more austere but more accountable era is just beginning.

Large numbers of domestic retail shareholders mean that public ill-will in Spain hurts Santander and BBVA just as much as other more domestic-focused lenders.

The recent decision to keep a mortgage-tax burden on clients rather than banks hasn’t improved the longer-term regulatory environment for Spanish lenders – or their own image.

Looking like a social media platform is doing CaixaBank's mobile-only bank no harm at all

One year on from a reboot, Openbank has doubled customers and is making a profit

Pimco and Anchorage subpoena the Spanish bank for information to support their case in the EU General Court and criminal proceedings in Madrid.

Redomicile quelled depositor fears, says CEO; economy boosts newly acquired Portuguese business.

Ana Botín and her team are taking advantage of Europe's restructuring of its banking sector

Sale of non-core assets could help bolster its balance sheet and open up new options

The Single Resolution Board was wrong to wholly redact the Spanish bank’s valuation report but it will fight hard to keep its workings as opaque as possible.

The speed with which Santander took on Popular has boosted confidence in the recovery of Spain’s economy and banks, but what are the implications of its high provisions for Popular’s NPLs in a banking system still awash in problem loans?

Santander’s takeover of Banco Popular was certainly in the public interest, but did it break EU law?

Angola