Matias Rodriguez Inciarte, Vice Chairman of Banco Santander, discussed the Spanish bank's successful negotiation of the financial crisis unsettling the euro zone. He spoke at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Inciarte, a former Minister of the Presidency of Spain, was instrumental in Spain's entry into the European Union. His speech focuses on Banco Santander's dominant position in Europe and the EU's efforts to forge a banking union and stabilize the financial system dragged down by excessive debt and bank failures in Greece, Spain and Italy.
In June, EU members agreed to take the first steps towards a unified European banking system, something Germany has long resisted. Germany insists that Spain resolve its banking crisis outside of the proposed banking union.