Banks & Asset Managers (AO) | CaixaBank upgraded by Fitch; Santander, BBVA and Banco Sabadell affirmed

Research evidence excerpt

Banks & Asset Managers (AO) | CaixaBank upgraded by Fitch; Santander, BBVA and Banco Sabadell affirmed

News comment

09 July 2026

Sébastien Barthélemi

Head of Credit Research

+33 1 70 39 74 76

Banks & Asset Managers sbarthelemi@keplercheuvreux.com

Iberia

CaixaBank upgraded by Fitch; Santander, BBVA and Banco Sabadell

affirmed

Key points:

Fitch completed its review of the main Spanish banks, resulting in a one-notch upgrade for CaixaBank, on the back of its

improved domestic risk profile and earnings resilience, and rating affirmations for Santander, BBVA and Banco Sabadell, all with

stable outlooks.

Overall, the rating agency continues to highlight the favourable Spanish operating environment, resilient profitability, sound

funding profiles and sizeable resolution debt buffers, while differing views on business diversification, capitalisation and

geographic risk explain the rating differences across issuers.

While all four banks continue to demonstrate robust capital generation, strong funding and resilient profitability, we do not

believe current spreads on Tier2s and AT1s adequately compensate investors relative to similarly rated European peers.

Accordingly, our recommendations remain unchanged: we maintain our Hold recommendations on Banco Sabadell, CaixaBank,

Santander and BBVA across both Tier2 and AT1 instruments, while continuing to favour selected opportunities in other European

banks offering more compelling relative value.

More details are available in our Banks Monitor, published in June, available here.

Banco Sabadell (Hold Tier2/AT1) affirmed

Fitch affirmed Banco Sabadell's Long-Term IDR at A- with a stable outlook and its VR at bbb+, highlighting the bank's resilient

domestic franchise, sustained earnings momentum and satisfactory capitalisation.