By Rosa Espín and Leticia Sitges

The Spanish government recently passed a draft bill for the “ rationalization and organization of the supervising regulatory bodies of the markets and the improvement of its governance” (the Draft Bill). The bill aims to reorganize antitrust regulation, and to improve supervision and regulation in the economic and financial domains, specifically the banking, capital markets, and insurance sectors.

On 4 June 2013, the Spanish government passed Act No. 3/2013, creating the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia ( CNMC). This comprises several regulatory bodies: the National Energy Commission; the National Antitrust Commission; the Telecommunications Market Commission; the Rail Regulation Committee; the Airport Economic Regulation Commission; and the National Postal Industry Commission.

According to the new Draft Bill, the CNMC, the Spanish current national regulatory authority (NRA), will be replaced by four new independent administrative authorities:

1. An Independent Administrative Authority for Antitrust
2. An Independent Administrative Authority for the Supervision and Regulation of the Markets
3. An Independent Administrative Authority for Insurance and Pension Plans
4. An Independent Administrative Authority for the Protection of Financial Services Consumers and Financial Investors