... La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, and Shleifer, 2002; Barth, Caprio, and Levine, 2004; Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, and Maksimovic, 2004; Berger, Hasan, and Klapper, 2004; Clarke and Cull, 2002; Delfino, 2003 ... The Institutional Background: Banking Deregulation and Savings Banks in Spain The Spanish banking system is an industry with two main institutions, commercial banks and savings banks that compete ... institutions face similar regulations, in terms of credit risk, accounting standards and taxation, although they still differ in their ownership, governance structure and organizational form....