Catalonia aims to boost competitiveness with creation of new financial hub

The Catalan government has started the process of creating a financial hub in the Barcelona Stock Exchange building. 

The executive has published a call to find an operator to develop the project, which includes renting the first five floors of the Passeig de Gràcia office building for six years (2024-2029) to the group tasked with developing the hub. 

Catalan authorities are looking for an operator to "boost the promotion, revitalization, and competitiveness of financial-technology services, sustainable finance, and investment entrepreneurship in Catalonia." 

The grant will be awarded on a competitive basis and the bidding period opens this Friday and will end on October 31. From then, the department will have six months to make a decision.

Whoever wins the tender will have to carry out at least 12 new projects per year of emerging companies and organize at least two events per year to put entrepreneurs in contact with investors. 

The government assures that the new financial hub is a "strategic project" that represents a "unique opportunity." 

Economy minister Natàlia Mas announced the financial hub plan from Zurich where she met with the manager of the Swiss stock exchange, Six. 

The building located on Passeig de Gràcia has ten floors, five of which were occupied by the Department of Economy until 2020. The other five floors are used by the Six group, which owns Borses Mercats Espanyols (BME), the operator of the stock markets in Spain.