Spain's fifth-biggest bank Sabadell will shift its registered domicile away from Catalonia, a company spokesman said Thursday, after threats by the region's leaders to declare independence.

The bank will on Friday launch "rapid" procedures that within days will move its legal domicile, but not its headquarters and employees, to the eastern city of Alicante, a spokesman who asked not to be named told AFP.

Shares in the Catalan lender, the second-biggest bank in the northeastern region, had plunged 10 percent on the stock exchange this week as a political crisis between Catalonia and Madrid deepened.

They recovered on Thursday, up more than six percent at close of trading.

Catalonia's biggest lender CaixaBank will also hold discussions on Friday about possibly shifting its legal domicile out of the region, a source close to the matter told AFP.

The Catalan regional government has said it could declare independence as early as Monday. It claims voters backed the move in a referendum vote outlawed by Madrid.

The political standoff has dragged Spain into its worst political crisis in decades.

Catalonia accounts for a fifth of Spain's economy.

Source: AFP