Spain's Central Bank has warned a Catalan independence bid could trigger stringent capital controls.
Luis María Linde, the bank's governor, raised the prospect of accounts being frozen and cash withdrawals restricted in the way last seen in Europe in Greece over the summer.
His intervention came ahead of elections in Catalonia next weekend that have become a defacto plebiscite on independence.
The most recent polls show two slates of pro-independence candidates likely to take an absolute majority of seats and half the popular vote.
At a glance: the forces fighting Catalunya's proxy indyref
Mr Linde stressed he was referring to a risk and that it was highly improbable. However, his remarks come after commercial banks warned they would pull out of Catalonia in the event of independence.
Some journalists are already referring to such risk-flagging - or scaremongering, depending on your point of view - as Spain's Project Fear, or, in Spanish, "the strategy of fear".
The stories, they say, are based on what they called the "Scottish manual" for unionists tested in last year's independence referendum.
All candidates in the main pro-independence ticket, Junts pel Sí or Together for Yes, routinely dismiss risks flagged up by their opponents as fearmongering.
Catalonia is by far the richest nation in Iberia and accounts for about a fifth of Spain's GDP.
Linde's remarks come after Spanish leaders, backed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, suggested Catalonia would be ejected from the EU if it left Spain. Mr Linde, in echoes of Scottish controversies over a pound union after independence, said: "An exit from the EU would imply an automatic exit from the Euro."
As in Scotland, continued members of the EU and currency union have been constant themes of anti-independence campaigners.
Catalan President Artur Mas, whose centrist party is one of those joining Junts pel Sí, dismissed such warnings. He said: "It is irresponsible and indecent to threaten things that nobody in a democratic country would dare to insinuate. They do this because they haven't got any other argument."
Mr Mas's reply was also straight out of a Scottish playbook, a pro-independence one.
Catalonia, he said, would not pay its share of Spain's national debt if Madrid refused to negotiate, echoing the response of Alex Salmond to UK threats to refuse to share the pound.
He believes it would be "unimaginable" for Spain to try and remove Catalonia from the Eurozone or the EU. He said: "They would not do that because it would not be in their interests.
"Imagine if there was no deal on public debt? How would the state face up to its debts if there was no agreement for Catalonia to accept its share?"
"There are people who have power and who do not want to lose their seats. Today we have another example, the governor of the Bank of Spain. People in the service of the state who do not want to lose power."
Mr Linde used the Spanish word "corralito" to describe the risk of capital controls and bank account freezing. This term was used to described dramatic actions taken by central bankers in Argentina at the beginning of this century. Savers were unable to access their money.
Some of Mr Mas's own advisors warned of a "corralito" in the event of secession, a fact widely cited during this month's election campaign by Xavier García Albiol, the leader of the Catalan wing of Spain's ruling Conservatives, the PP.
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