A hoax in the networks about Bankinter explains all the reasons for the fear of banks in this crisis
Crisis of trustworthy banks. There are no solvency or liquidity problems, as stated by Governor Pablo Hernandez de Cos on Monday, March 27th. The problem is that panic is spreading among investors (individual and professional), as well as among depositors. In this scenario, the financial institutions trust everything to be transparent and try to get out any misinformation or misinformation that could damage their position in the face of the market.
The latter is what he did on Sunday Bank. They could not allow some statements to freeze in public opinion because they were not real and took the opportunity to deny them at full speed on social networks. This just goes to show that the fear in the financial sector at the moment is that investors and customers may withdraw their confidence.
It all started late Sunday morning. Foreign economic analysis house, Steno Research, released a graph on Twitter of where it was located at Bank As one of the banks most exposed to the commercial real estate sector, i.e. offices. An area of activity in turmoil in the US due to higher benchmark interest rates and the impact of telecommuting in the office sector. In fact, this is one of the most troublesome companies in North America.
The chart was soon replicated by an executive at Morningstar, a leading financial analysis firm. It all seems to add up because the data came from a Bloomberg database, which is used by all kinds of companies, banks, analysts, etc. However, the information that was published was not real.
It was Sunday at lunchtime, but Bankinter’s social media team was working. There are always people in the apartment even on weekends. A large part of his job is dealing with misinformation or customer complaints on networks like Twitter, in which case the position demands speed given accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers.
The network team saw the information on the aforementioned social network and quickly discovered that it was wrong. Internally, they reached out to the Investor Relations area of the group to verify the information and clarify the matter as soon as possible. Within minutes they stepped forward, announcing that Bankinter’s exposure to commercial real estate was not.
It is a serious mistake to include them in a report as “commercial real estate market” (offices, commercial buildings, etc…). We recommend making texts with data obtained from official sources. all the best
– Bankinter (Bankinter) March 26, 2023
They began by saying, in response to the chart, “Bankinter does not have this exposure to the commercial real estate market, since our main financing was residential mortgage,” later adding: “It is a grave mistake to include it in the report as the ‘commercial real estate market’ (offices, commercial buildings, etc…).We recommend making texts with data obtained from official sources.
The ruling was about posting an offer on commercial real estate that actually referred to “secured debtors,” which are essentially mortgages for homes. Which did not satisfy the entity in light of its messages on Twitter: “The problem is giving the truth to unofficial data and detailing / redistributing it with it and without asking for incorrect information.”
This data is wrong. If you see the official 2022 report https://t.co/Fz5xHYD3fE (pages 39 and 199), you will see that header is “Real Security Owed.” This means that all loans with a mortgage guarantee, mainly 34,000 million home mortgages. pic.twitter.com/PolDraOui8
– Bankinter (Bankinter) March 26, 2023
The analysis house that published the chart deleted it a few minutes later when it was verified that the information was incorrect, although it was claimed anyway that they were numbers received on the portal. bloomberg. Thus, Bankinter has already conveyed to Bloomberg that the data it has in this regard is false so that they can correct the judgment.
Thus, the financial entity managed by María Dolores d’Ancuza spent several hours not to leave a single tweet on the social network that might lead one to believe that the drawing posted at the beginning was good. They issued dozens of responses to users implicated in the information to deny these figures.
Trust is key
Although it is common for Bankinter to use networks to deny false statements and to communicate with customers, this case shows that a timely reaction can prevent greater damage in the future if information is spread.
In any case, it is a matter of maintaining confidence in the bank to prevent problems with the entity’s investors and/or depositors. What’s more, considering that in recent weeks, with the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), along with the downfall of Signature Bank, the troubles of First Republic in the US, and the implosion of Credit Suisse, nerves in the entities have been on the surface.
In fact, as ABC reports, banks have opened the channel these weeks to pass their data on to analysts, rating agencies, and supervisors. They provide all the information they require to analyze the health of the banks. The goal is to have no doubt about the state of the sector.
Likewise, the stock market ups and downs since the collapse of the SVB showed investors’ skepticism towards the financial sector, as they lost around €50,000m of market capitalization in just one week among the major European entities.