Can Spain’s banks stave off doomsayers?

The Spanish central bank prevented its financial institutions from investing heavily in the US sub-prime related securities. But Spain’s mid-tier banks are heavily exposed to a local property sector in crisis. Can they ride out the downturn? Peter Koh reports.

SPANISH BANKS ARE seeing a rapid increase in non-performing loans coming from the property sector, mortgage holders and small companies. Like banks everywhere, they are also finding the wholesale funding markets less than welcoming. But while the general collapse in confidence worldwide and the severity of Spain’s property crisis in particular has some investors spooked and on the lookout for any signs of trouble, the fundamentals of the picture, although by no means pretty, are not as bad as they might at first appear.

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