The summer’s financial turmoil has intensified competition across Spain’s asset management industry as companies fight for a share of a diminishing wealth market cake with both local and international asset managers under pressure.

Pioneer Investments has appointed Teresa Molins as senior sales manager for Spain and Portugal in a move designed to strengthen its business in Iberia.

It’s not quite a revolution but the arrival of independent financial advisers is shaking up old habits among Spanish investors and fund managers.

Spanish banks will benefit from new capital requirements set by the European Banking Authority, said ECB executive board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo.

As the crisis in Europe threatens global economic recovery, investors are looking at more attractive alternatives in emerging markets and turning their attention to Latin America.

Foreign managers in Spain saw their assets under management decline by an estimated 6% in the third quarter to about €47bn, according to figures from Inverco, the Spanish asset management association, cited by the Funds People news service.

Banco Santander, the eurozone's biggest bank, said a significant charge for mis-selling payment protection insurance(PPI) hit profits in Q3, but its capital cushion would lift it out of danger territory.

The European summit took an important first step towards a solution to the eurozone crisis but much remains to be done and asset managers will be concerned about moves to value all sovereign debt to market.

The UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Credit Suisse UK £5.95m for systems and controls failings in relation to sales by its private bank of structured capital at risk products known as Scarps.