For yet another year, Alvantia has sponsored the Assembly of the Spanish Factoring Association which on this occasion was held at the Parador de Málaga Golf on May 8 and 9.

As usual, the president of the AEF, Carlos Dalmau, inaugurated the event, accompanied this time by the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre.

The first presentation was given by José Luis Encinas and Cristina Lobo RoldánCEO and director of regulation at Iberpay, respectively, and was moderated by Ignacio Sagarminaga. Encinas gave an overview of the European retail payments strategy, which aims, among other challenges, to: guarantee Europe’s sovereignty and strategic autonomy in payments; generalize instant payments in Europe; develop pan-European solutions based on instant payments (alternatives to cards); improve international payments outside the Euro and promote financial digitalization, innovation, resilience and speed of payments. Lobo spoke about the benefits of instant transfers and Request to Pay (instant “debit”).

During the second day of the assembly, the current situation of Inblock, one of the AEF’s key projects, was analyzed. Enrique Fernández Albarracín, partner at EY Abogados and Víctor Vázquez Rey, Senior Manager at EY Technology, explained the benefits that this system will bring to Factoring entities in a presentation moderated by Carlos García Casas, Secretary General of the AEF. The experts agreed that Inblock:

• It will be an accelerator in critical risk management processes in the trade finance business.
• It will elevate the position of the entities in their business strategy through the adoption of technology in key processes.
• It will become a lever for user entities with “winner” ambitions vs. entities that choose to wait and see (“follower” strategy).

The event ended with the presentation “Geopolitics and Uncertainty, the times we are living in” by Gonzalo de Cadenas-SantiagoDeputy General Manager of MAPFRE Economics, who analyzed the economic and sectorial outlook 2025-2026, highlighting that “we are entering a period of uncertainty and instability with a foreseeable global economic cost” and reaching the following conclusions about the present and future of the economy:

-This is shaping up to be a biennium of high uncertainty and high volatility.

-The central scenario is one of global stagflation with varying degrees of severity depending on the intensity of the trade war.

-The balance of risks was already skewed to the downside, and geopolitics (especially since Trump) amplifies and intertwines those risks.

-There are multiple possible trajectories that could lead to a global inflationary recession.

-For now, only the uncertainty and expectations channel has been activated, without the real effects of the tariffs having fully materialized.

-The recent correction of financial markets doubles the implied probability of global recession.