Gronghui, May 9 | Spain's second-largest bank by assets, the Spanish Foreign Bank (BBVA), has launched a hostile takeover offer worth more than 12 billion US dollars to its smaller competitor Banco de Sabadell, which indicates that Europe's long-sluggish banking sector may see a recovery in trading activity. However, the move immediately sparked criticism from Spain's Minister of Economy, highlighting that large-scale mergers between banks are often accompanied by huge political hurdles. A few days ago, Sabadell's board of directors rejected the Spanish Foreign Bank's offer to buy all shares. BBVA first tried to buy this bank 4 years ago. Other than UBS's bailout takeover of Credit Suisse, there have been few transactions between European banks in recent years as the industry has been struggling to cope with the impact of the economic crisis, negative interest rates, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.