First Catalan financial cluster to be created next year

Catalan Vice President and Minister of the Economy and Treasury Oriol Junqueras announced that a Catalan financial cluster will be created during 2018. The aim of the initiative, said Junqueras, is to “bring funding closer” to small and medium-sized companies and for firms and the financial sector to reach a better understanding. The cluster is the first of its kind to be set up in Catalonia.

Junqueras unveiled the project in the presentation of an in-depth analysis of the financial sector’s current situation, which states that around 450 companies in this sector manage some 955 billion euros. These include banks, insurance firms, mutual insurance companies and investment businesses based in the country, plus Catalonia’s share of the business from companies located elsewhere.

Around 98,000 people are employed in this sector, which contributes 7.47 billion euros to Catalan GDP. This accounted for 3.6% of Catalan GDP in 2016, a drop compared to the 4.6% in 2000 and the 5% in 2007, when mortgages were at their highest just before the crisis hit. The financial sector in Catalonia makes up around 18% of the overall Spanish market.

Barcelona stock market president, Joan Hortalà, warned that the Catalan sector is “at risk of being subsidiarized to a certain extent” because, he said, the organization managing the stock market at a Spanish level is centralizing the system. The report was presented at the Barcelona stock exchange by a Catalan government representative and the head of the Cluster Development firm, with Junqueras and Hortalà also taking part.