Abstract:

It has been five years now since the foreign banks had tried "to break" the traditional relationship between customers and Spanish banks with a product banking approach. They launched new products with innovative features like the house mortgage loan, and the "citicuenta" of Citibank or the "Cuenta Azul" of Barclays. As in the case of the house mortgage loan of Citibank, it took only 15 days to grant the loan meanwhile in the other banks it took longer (2 months or more). Barclays and Citibank were also the first to pay interest on the balance of the current account. Innovations like these facilitated a change in the financial scene and affected the traditional relationship with the Spanish banks. So the competition was centered on price and product features advantages.