Resumen: This article presents empirical evidence about factors that influence the solvency of Spanish savings banks. It also studies whether the presence of politicians in their governance has led to lower solvency ratios and, consequently, to the current economic situation in the Spanish banking sector. We use multivariate regressions, taking the solvency ratio as the dependent variable; and efficiency, the coverage ratio, political influence, CEOs'' political influence, size, growth, and age as independent variables. Our results confirm that banking entities controlled by politicians resulted in poor performance, and political influence on the boards of savings banks led them to insolvency. The findings show that the non-ownership structure of savings banks, the lack of best practice corporate governance mechanisms, and political presence have weakened them. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1002/nml.21205 Año: 2016 Publicado en: Nonprofit Management and Leadership 26, 4 (2016), 471–488 ISSN: 1048-6682 Factor impacto JCR: 1.236 (2016) Categ. JCR: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION rank: 26 / 46 = 0.565 (2016) - Q3 - T2 Categ. JCR: MANAGEMENT rank: 127 / 192 = 0.661 (2016) - Q3 - T3 Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.65 - Strategy and Management (Q2)