By Andrés González Banco Santander SA Executive Chair Ana Botin criticized regulations as a tax on businesses if they go too far, reinforcing a push for better rulemaking in Europe.

“Europe needs to change,” Botin said in an interview for The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations, taped in July. “We need smart regulation. Excess regulation is a tax. It’s a big tax.”There’s widespread concern across the European banking sector that it’s lagging the US, partly fueled by a deregulation push under the Trump administration. The heads of 11 top European lenders, including Botin, last month urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde to impose a moratorium on any fresh capital requirements while the bloc develops broader reforms.

The European Union in July unveiled a sweeping outline of reforms to tackle inefficiencies, barriers and national biases that have dogged its banks for decades. The commission promised firm proposals by the first quarter of next year, though any legislative changes will then still have to be thrashed out with the EU’s parliament and council.

Botin also called on Europe to enshrine competitiveness into regulation as a way to ensure that the region doesn’t fall behind other jurisdictions.

“We need regulators and supervisors to have a competitiveness mandate, much as they have in the US or the UK,” she said.

The top bankers pushed the case for European financial supervisors to be given a competitiveness mandate in their appeal last month. The EU stopped short of recommending that measure as part of its banking reform proposals unveiled in July.