Kutxabank’s future, i.e. that of the savings banks of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and therefore its social function as a financial column for the Basque industry and economy, is at risk by the privatisation process. And, therefore, the good that has been acquired in recent decades thanks to thousands of savers, public institutions, municipalities, deputies and workers is put at risk. If there is no rapid attack on the part of the public, if there is no political and institutional response, control will be taken by vulture investors and expolited. Last week the 2013 accounts were presented and it was reported that it earned returns of EUR 108 million, after taxes, 28% more than in 2012. Its industrial portfolio amounts to EUR 3.1 billion, accounting for 70% of own funds.

Of course, the Basque banks, by European mandate, that is, by order of the managers of international capitalism, should reduce their control to 30% in Kutxabank. The rest will be privatized. Kutxabank has already started to sell its stake in companies known as Euskaltel and Ibermatica, and has also reduced its presence in Iberdrola. And it has sold that share to venture capital investment funds, which become vultures, in search of immediate profitability, by buying shares with a speculative interest that has nothing to do with productive activity. Kutxabank is surrounded by financial vultures, and if there is no resistance, he will die and take possession of his heritage, the heritage of deputies, municipalities, taxpayers and workers. For Kutxabank to retain the greed of vultures, we have to fight to get rid of their claws. There are alternatives: keeping it as a savings bank or turning it into a credit union. We must avoid at all costs what someone has described as an “economicide of the Basque cash system”.