The single economic entity resulting from the IPS – the aggregate – must be profitable and efficient, well-managed and display dynamism befitting the financial sector so as to provide the services demanded by the real economy with quality and at competitive prices. Evidently, in a setting of clear risk-aversion, the road to attain these goals and to convince savingsbank creditors of them, so that they renew the funding they have provided, is not an easy one. This task requires three basic conditions. First condition: resolve in adopting the measures needed using exclusively corporate criteria, in full knowledge that some of them may not be agreeable owing to the personal sacrifice entailed. To achieve this, it is essential that all the interest groups behind the governance of the merged savings banks should identify with the goals of the single project. Second condition: flexibility and speed in adopting these measures. As the saying goes, time is precious. The need to access wholesale funding markets as from the first fortnight in January in 2011 and the greater capital requirements imposed by the regulations in the pipeline and by the widespread increase in the perception of risk should be a spur to all, and they impose a clear-cut reduction in all the timeframes envisaged for the conclusion of the projects. In practice, the timetables for the concentration plans suggested some six months back must be significantly shortened. Implementation of the various steps must be brought forward, with every extra effort and sacrifice needed being made.
Third condition: determination in transmitting to the market the idea of a single and consolidated project, of a concentration arrangement equivalent to a merger, of an entity prepared to harness in practice all the synergies and all the management improvements made possible by an IPS structure. To do this a proactive strategy should be adopted, geared to securing the economies of scale characteristic of a merger and to reducing overheads, including unit wage costs, which is imperative in the current economic circumstances. Any sign of wavering should be avoided, since this would be seen as an excuse to question the group’s cohesiveness, which is an unacceptable risk at present. I stated in the introduction that any new product has to be prepared to overcome a fourth and final trial and evaluation step: it must prove its capacity for future development. This is a particularly pertinent demand for the financial system, since what is involved is a nimble and dynamic sector. IPSs are a structure that must prove to be of use in providing lasting banking services. But it is also true that legislation, specifically Royal Decree-Law 11/2010 of 9 July 2010, has opened up new means for savings banks to pursue their activity, offering a range of possibilities. In particular, it is provided for that savings banks participating in an IPS can convert in the future, de facto or de jure, into savings banks with “indirect activity”, or into foundations, which focus on attending to and developing their welfare fund assets.