Prior to the Spanish Government's historical intervention in 1993, the first in the history of banking, Banesto was the third-largest financial group in Spain,[2] operating around 1,770 branches,[1] as well as the fifth-largest company of the IBEX 35.

[6][7] With a patrimonial hole in Banesto tentatively estimated at €3.6 billion (equivalent to roughly US$7.2 billion today)[8] on 28 December 1993, Luis Carlos Croissier, the President of the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores, the financial regulator of the national securities markets, decided to impose a trading halt on Banesto, and Luis Ángel Rojo, the Governor of the Bank of Spain, communicated the intervention of the banking entity, tasking Alfredo Sáenz Abad with chairing the board of directors of Banesto in a temporary basis.

[11] After the intervention, the team of managers from BBV, headed by Alfredo Sáenz, assumed initial control of the bank and were responsible for executing a sanitation plan.

[13] Outside of Spain, Banesto became well-known as the sponsor of the cycling team that featured Miguel Indurain, the first rider to win five consecutive Tour de France.

[citation needed]The bank's promoter was a French group chaired by Gustavo Pereire, administrator of the Company of the Iron Roads of Northern Spain.

This initiative was joined by Cayetano Sánchez Bustillo and León Cocagne (deputy director of Banco Hipotecario de España) on behalf of a group of Spanish investors.

[citation needed] From 1940, Banesto began an expansion and absorption process of other entities that placed it amongst the most prominent Spanish banks.