Financial Crisis, Finance Policies in the Regions and the Politics of Territory in Spain

Whilst the global financial crisis triggered financial regulatory reforms in all spheres, most power remained at nation-state level. This paper addresses the question of whether regions gained financial regulatory relevance in highly decentralised states.  In Spain, the restructuring of the financial sector since 2009 became a key arena where discourses on territorial governance were played out. This paper explores the territorial overdetermination of the financial crisis in a region (Galicia) in the context of a larger comparative project (RSA funded) which examines territorial governance in relation to financial politics, policies and regulatory reforms in Spain. It examines the agents, events and processes which led to ‘regional’ mergers of savings banks, bankarization and EU rescue, looking into their embeddedness in spatial ideas, discourses of community and in de/territorializing forces. The paper looks into forms of agency involved in the (re)production of regions as regulatory spaces and on the interconnectedness of territorial spheres of policy action.