Central Bank of Cuba approved BBVA’s request to cancel its license

The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) canceled the representation license of the BBVA at the request of the Spanish entity, the BCC reported through a decree in the Official Gazette.

The cancellation of BBVA’s license was published in the Tuesday version of the Gazette and was not reported in the official Cuban press.

The closure of the representative office of the Biscayan bank puts an end to a relationship that began on August 10, 2000. BBVA He asked the BCC for the cancellation on October 3, according to the decree.

On Tuesday, the Spanish bank confirmed that it had conveyed to the president of Banco de Sabadell, Josep Oliu, the group’s interest in starting new negotiations to explore the possibility of a merger between both entities.

For his part, the Sabadell It has had a license in Cuba since 1995, although it has not emerged that the request to withdraw the license is linked to this movement.

On the other hand, the BCC also approved issuing a representation license for the Russian bank Novikombank, one of those sanctioned by the West since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.

As clarified in the decree, Novikombank will be able “manage, promote or coordinate the business carried out by its parent company, in freely convertible currency (foreign currency) with entities established in the national territory” and make “correspondent” agreements with “established financial institutions” in Cuba.

He also stressed that the Eurasian bank has “prohibited from directly carrying out active or passive banking or financial operations of any kind.”

The Havana and Moscow They committed in the middle of last year, after a business summit in Havana, to increase Russia’s financial presence in the Caribbean country.

According to the Cuban Government, in November 2023 the first operations were carried out with Russian bank cards MIR on the island, a system that “it is here to stay”, in order to boost -even more- Russian tourism.