The banks warn that they are already examining the legal "fit" of the new government tax with a magnifying glass

• Inflation This is the new tax on banks and energy companies

The banks feel directly targeted by the government's plan to combat inflation and are reluctant to assume that the tax that the Executive presented this Thursday is the solution against the runaway rise in prices.

The sector believes that the measure

and is willing to dissect the proposal to the millimeter to ensure its legal fit in the fiscal and tax system of Spain.

"The banking associations are analyzing the technical details and we maintain our willingness to dialogue with the Government and with the parliamentary groups in its processing, on the basis of an adequate fit with the basic principles of our tax system such as those of equality, non-discrimination and economic capacity", warns the statement published by the

(AEB) shortly after the details of the tax were known.

The measure proposes to tax at 4.8% the interest and net commissions of financial entities with income of more than 800 million euros during the next two years.

The Government, which has presented this Thursday the bill that develops the tax, aspires to collect 1,500 million euros each year and contemplates sanctioning banks that transfer the cost of the tax to customers with 150% of the amount that they overload the consumers.

In the sector they recognize the discomfort and "

" before the measure and before the events that have occurred since the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced the tax during the debate on the State of the Nation.

They claim not to understand "what is the purpose" of the tax.

In fact, they consider that the Executive pursues more a political effort than an economic one, that

"It is a measure that will not achieve its objective of combating inflation and, in addition, will hinder economic recovery and job creation, in a context of rising prices and geopolitical tensions [...] A measure of this type affects to the credit and risk decisions of the entities, and also to their competitive capacity in the single European market", emphasizes the employers' association.

Along with economic efficiency, doubts also center on the legal fit of the measure.

CEO of

, already advanced this line in the presentation of the group's results last week, when she assured that "if there are loopholes to not pay it, because the law assists us legally, we will fight it".

The rest of the entities seem to follow that path.

In the sector, they are suspicious of the legal framework of the measure and want to ensure to what extent the tax is consistent with non-discrimination with other sectors or incurs the double taxation that the affected banks would have to bear.

"stigmatized"

On the other hand, the banks claim to feel "stigmatized" after the reputational crisis caused by the bursting of the financial bubble in 2008. They consider that the Government has appointed them directly to cover the bill against inflation and has not taken into account the impact it could have on market activity.

"There is a situation, some very clear origins of why we have this inflation and, suddenly, the solution seems to be to burden some sectors. The sector is stigmatized and it worries me," said

, CEO of Banco Santander, during the entity's results presentation this morning.

Álvarez has also put a figure on the impact that the measure will have on financial activity: 50,000 million euros that the banking sector will stop lending due to the application of the tax.

Meeting the collection objective of 3,000 million euros in two years that the Government intends, "reduces the capacity to lend for an amount of 50,000 million euros. The dynamics of the market will be what they have to be," the manager assured.

His counterpart at Banco Sabadell,

, also criticized the proposal during the presentation of the entity's semi-annual accounts and warned that it will mainly affect the bank's shareholders, who are mostly small investors, and who have suffered a loss of profitability of 50% in recent years, well above other sectors such as energy or construction, due to the environment of negative interest rates.

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