Competitive differentiation increasing in Spanish banks, Barclays cuts Unicaja to "underweight"

CaixaBank SA

14/07/2026 08:17

** Barclays sees core revenues for Spanish banks growing in Q2, but says the key debate should be if strong business volume growth comes at the expense of pricing
** The broker expects Q2 to reinforce differentiation across the sector, with key question being which banks can translate stronger commercial activity into the most profitable growth while continuing to generate excess capital
** It cuts Unicaja UNI.MC to "underweight" from "equal weight", as the recent re-rating left the stock looking increasingly demanding on a P/E versus EPS growth basis and raised the economic hurdle for a potential transaction
** Barclays still sees Caixabank CABK.MC and Santander SAN.MC as their preferred Spanish banks, with the first combining a strongest domestic retail franchises in Europe with disciplined commercial execution and visible earnings upgrade potential
** "Santander remains our preferred diversified exposure, combining one of the strongest EPS growth profiles in European banks with visible operating leverage", it adds

 (Reporting by Tiago Brandao)
 ((Tiago.Brandao@thomsonreuters.com;))