Debt difficults Spanish banks mergers and auctions

José Luis Marco, CAPITAL MADRID | Spanish government’ two first RDL condemned more than one financial institution to the red throughout this exercise. The sentence has not been limited to the four entities under the FROB umbrella but has also reached some entities that are in the process of integration with other groups, such as CEISS Bank, Caja Duero Spain, in full merger with Unicaja, to take losses of 125 million euros in the first half of the year.

This situation is a result of compliance, at least partially, with sanitation and provisions requirements, which have considerably reduced the result of some other groups, even those that could have active role in the new Spanish financial sector rearrangement. For example BMN, the bank resulting from the merger led by Caja Murcia, has seen its half-yearly profit plummet almost 94%.

The harsh diet imposed on Spanish banks to remove the excess of fat accumulated during the housing bubble is threatening more than one entity. Last semester results show that several entities are already in the red, not only the four entities under the FROB’s control. Many more old ‘cajas’ are threatened since they need to make huge efforts to clean their balance sheets.