Specialised lending institutions

These are credit institutions providing credit in a specific area, such as consumer credit, mortgage credit, credit cards, guarantees, leasing (finance leases with the option to purchase), factoring (assignment of a loan portfolio)

They are regulated by Law 5/2015, of April 27 2015 (in Spanish)Abre en ventana nueva which incorporates similar starting up conditions to banks, but with lower capital requirements. Legislation takes into account the peculiarities of these institutions such as:

• Their specialised business, which is limited to the performance of various forms of credit operations, management or issuance of credit cards, and the granting of guarantees.
• The fact that they do not need to join a Deposit Guarantee Fund as they are not authorised to take deposits from the public.

Their activity is subject to a regulatory regime monitored by the Banco de España similar to that of banking institutions.