Joe Duggan (Reporter)
SABADELL is set to move its bank headquarters out of Catalunya, it has been claimed.
The Barcelona-based bank, which has 11 million clients, is eyeing up a move to Madrid or Alicante over fears Catalunya could declare independence.
Sabadell bosses are meeting on Thursday evening to discuss the relocation, according to El Pais.
Catalunya’s largest bank, CaixaBank, also based in Barcelona, is yet to decide whether it will move from the north-eastern region.
On Thursday, shares in CaixaBank fell 3.4% on the news.
Sabadell says it is taking the decision ‘to protect workers, a large number of them Catalan, shareholders, many of them Catalan and clients’.
Far-left MP Eulàlia Reguant (CUP) has called on the Catalan government to stop using La Caixa, Sabadell and BBVA banks in protest at the planned moves.
Sabadell, which also has a base in the Catalan town of Sant Cugat del Vallès, already has its real estate arm’s headquarters in Alicante.
