The Bank of Spain called on the country’s banks to make an “extra effort” to disclose their real estate holdings amid concern the country may also need to be bailed out after Ireland accepted a financial rescue.
Lenders will have to give more information about risks linked to property and real estate, with details of guarantees and reserves set aside to cover them, by March 2011, Deputy GovernorJavier Ariztegui said today in a speech in Barcelona. He also told banks to cut their costs in a “rapid and decided manner” and complete the mergers that will reduce the number of savings-bank groups by almost two-thirds.
“Spain and the Spanish banking system need our creditors to renew the financing they’ve granted us,” he said, saying there was “no room” for delaying the restructuring under way in the industry. “The best way to achieve it is to show daily that the banks and savings banks are healthy and profitable.”
Contagion from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is spreading to Spain and Portugal as Irish officials race to complete a deal for an international aid package before financial markets reopen next week. All of Ireland’s banks passed European regulators’ stress tests in July, while five Spanish savings banks failed the exercise.
Stock prices are falling and financing costs soaring for Spanish lenders. Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest bank, dropped 3.6 percent to 7.54 euros at 11:57 a.m. in Madrid, while Banco Espirito Santo SA, Portugal’s biggest publicly traded bank by market value, fell 1.1 percent to 2.97 euros.
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