Spain

Spanish factoring volumes dropped by 3.09 per cent last year, with total assignments falling from

In 2009, the European Investment Bank (EIB) increased its funding to Spanish SME and municipality projects by 55% year-on-year, providing

Josep Selles, Managing Director of Eurofactor Hispania in Spain, talks to Factorscan about the implications of Madrid s recent bank bail-out for factors and the wider financial community, the prospect of mergers in Spain s banking sector and how Spain and Spanish factors are faring in the downturn.

The Spanish Factoring Association releases positive statistics for factoring growth in 2008.

Banks prove themselves unwilling to lend to SMEs so Madrid steps into the breach with a new credit line.

The Spanish official credit institute with a credit line of 30m and the government of the Balearics are developing a joint strategy to help finance new projects by SMEs and entrepreneurs in this Spanish region.

Banks and their subsidiaries provide the majority of factoring services in Spain, and some have integrated factoring departments within their banking structure. Only three of AEF’s membership of 20 factors are bank-owned. When factoring was first introduced in Spain, there were no independent factoring companies and it was offered by banks as part of the overall financial services package. In the case of recourse factoring, its marketing was based on the solvency of the seller rather than on selling procedures and documents, or on debtor quality.

Spanish insurer Credito y Caucion (CyC) and Dutch company Atradius intend to float 30 to 35 per cent of the company resulting from their merger.

Santander Central Hispano (SCH) was the leading bank in the global export finance sector in 2006, according to statistics from Dealogic, overtaking Spain's second-largest bank