doi:10.1080/09540962.2020.1793496engTorres, LourdesPina, VicenteBachiller, PatriciaThe relationship between politicization and the Spanish savings banks’ defaultsART-2021-118807The heavy politicization of the corporate governance of the Spanish savings banks is shown in this paper to be a key factor explaining a large number of defaults. The authors explain the effect of political influence on savings banks boards of directors and provide empirical evidence about the factors that led to both poor performance and failures. The authors found a negative association between the percentage of savings banks’ board members appointed by politicians and performance. The demise of savings banks was important in terms of the public sector finances because the Spanish government had to spend millions of euros to rescue the banking system, with consequent cuts in government spending in other areas.2021http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/12962110.1080/09540962.2020.1793496http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/129621oai:zaguan.unizar.es:129621info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FEDER/S56-17Rinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO-FEDER/PID2019-106857GB-I00info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/UZ/JIUZ-2018-SOC-01info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/UZ/UZ2019-SOC-05PUBLIC MONEY & MANAGEMENT 41, 8 (2021), 586-593by-nc-ndhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess