MADRID | Banco Santander announced Thursday a net attributable profit of €1.704 billion in the first half of the year. The figure brings a cut down of about 51% compared with the same period in 2011. The Spanish bank pointed out that the decline is a result of setting aside €1.304 billion for provisions for real estate exposure in Spain of the second quarter ordinary profit of €1.404 billion. As a…
can you refinance mortgage with bad credit A drop of merely 10 percent in house prices between 2012 and 2014? BNP Paribas believes trends in Ireland and the US make the case for further value losses in Spain. Independent auditors of the Spanish banking sector Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger described their base scenario for the country's housing market in line with the International Monetary Fund's forecasts, and pointed at…
By Álvaro Mohorte, in Valencia | www.valenciaplaza.com | Spanish banks have had enough of bricks and mortar, and urgently need to sell properties. Up until now, prices of many of the properties coming from developers as well as individuals have been kept over the market’s in order to protect the entitities’ balances, but requirements of further provisions have forced a strategy change. The goal is to get rid of thousands of flats, apartments…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Pablo Diez, from the asset management department at Nordkapp, explained in a conversation with The Corner that Spain’s unemployment ratio distorts the image the market has about the country’s economy as a whole, and investors believe Spain is at higher risk of default than other euro peripheral countries. He also said that “Spain should be provided with an injection of money issued by the European Central…
Performing real estate assets in Spanish banks must now be provisioned at 30 percent of its book value, which will raise the average coverage ratio for all real estate assets to 45 percent. Then, troubled and toxic real estate assets will be transferred to an asset management company (sociedad de gestión de Activos) and the rest of the portfolio will be independently audited. The picture of the situation within the banking system in…
MADRID | Banco Santander on Monday announced that the banking group in Spain, including Banesto, will require €2.7 billion before taxes to comply with the new legislation passed last May 11 on real estate asset provisions. These charges are in addition to the reserves already made compulsory by a decree-law in February, of which €2.3 billion before taxes are still pending, as stated in a filing sent to the Spanish regulator…
MADRID | Ever since double entry accounting was developed in Middle Age Italy, banks have been able to mask shortcomings till the very verge of their implosion. After all, in every single balance sheet, assets always match liabilities to the last penny. The figures’ real value just becomes a matter of opinion, as recent discomfitures have shown. Lehman Brothers led the way many others have followed. The turn has come now…
MADRID | Rescuing BANKIA will contribute to cut short doubts on short-term Spanish banking solvency. It was no secret that BANKIA was thrown in deep waters by the demanding government requirement to uplift real estate portfolio, having the dubious merit to top the list of entities laden with bad loans. Its intention to mend this state and play on its own gathered widespread disbelief, as big potential partners turned their backs…
MADRID | The severe crisis in Europe and especially in Spain, Italy and Portugal has attracted some of the main actors of the private equity scene. According to Capital Madrid, one of the biggest firms in the sector, Apax Partners, has put its focus on the financial assets accumulated by the Spanish banks and that will shortly be going out for sale. Indeed, the difficult time many Spanish banks go through…
LONDON | Although less than 0.5% of homes in Britain would be affected by the increase in the stamp duty rate for multi-million pound homes announced in the 2012 budget, according to research by Lloyd, the very top end of the market just hit a historic high in sales. Does it need cool down? The total number of sales of properties that cost at least one million pounds in Great Britain was…