Catalunya’s two biggest banks have reported that they will move their legal base prior to a declaration of independence. Sabadell announced yesterday that it would be relocating its legal base to Alicante, with CaixaBank due to publicise its own move to Palma today. Both banks stated that they were not prepared to allow a declaration of independence, even in a hypothetical form, to harm the interests of their clients, shareholders or employees. The relocations have limited effects in tax areas since both will continue to pay corporation tax to the state and other taxes will revert to non-Catalan public institutions. However, it does run the risk of projecting an undesirable image of an independent Catalunya to other economic and financial markets, which further down the line, could result in a retraction of foreign investment.