For years, Spanish lender BBVA has lived in the shadow of Santander, the domestic market leader and the eurozone’s biggest bank by market capitalisation.

While analysts and investors have long seen the latter as energetic and adventurous, the perception of BBVA as a relative plodder has become – unfairly to many – entrenched. Santander’s announcement on Monday that it would attempt to buy back up to €16.5bn ($23.7bn) in securitised bonds – with discounts of as much as 39 per cent – appeared to underscore this contrast.