In Spain, an institutional protection system (IPS; Spanish: sistema institucional de protección, SIP) is a grouping of financial institutions (banks and savings banks) in which solvency risks and profits are shared between members while each member retains its separate legal identity. IPSs were introduced in 2010 to allow savings banks (cajas de ahorro) to group together for solvency purposes without formally merging. A similar system is used in France by Groupe BPCE (and formerly by Groupe Banque Populaire and Groupe Caisse d'Épargne, the predecessors of Groupe BPCE).