For the second year, Cardif gathered its partners to discuss the phenomenon of unemployment in the Spanish market with focus of financial experts on the current situation of the economy and the prospects for transition in the Labour market. Cardif also offered a round table debate about the future of social protection and unemployment in Spain with the company's approach of key players in the bank assurance market for PPI products. The event took place on the 7th of July in the Fundación Pons, a modern little palace located in the centre of Madrid.

Three questions to Ignacio Sainz, Managing Director of Cardif in Spain about this event.

What are the main objectives of this event?

Unemployment is today the major concern of Spanish society. As leader in creditor insurance in Spain, BNP Paribas Cardif wants to show to our partners and prospects our know how and expertise in the evolution of the labor market, bringing them the opportuniy to share our  experience and the view of specialists in economy, sociology or public finances. Our goal is to consolidate our position and image of leaders in this market, providing to our partners a solid analysis on what's going on.

What are the key messages of experts about the current situation of the Spanish economy?

Spanish economy is suffering a lot due to the financial crisis in the eurozone, that we are living in the battlefront, and to the consequences of the real estate bubble explosion. The experts put different and interesting views on the coming trends, and the key messages were: labor market will take a long time to get back to the pre-crisis situation; structural reforms are still needed to update our economic structure and to improve productivity; and last but not least. trust and confiance are the keystone upon which credit market will recover.

What is the impact of this situation on bancassurance activity in Spain?

Bancassurance is living a very deep process of change in our market: of course products bundled to loans are suffering the lack of credit activity. But I would say that the most important process is the new panorama of bancassurance alliances which is about ot emerge in 2012 after the full restructuration of the Spanish Saving Banks. The industry did not only reduce the numer of entities through mergers, but also started a process of desinvestment in captive insurance companies, of which some players took advantage in a kind of chess match. The end of this process is still far to be concluded and we will have to look for our own opportunities!