Anybody been affected ?

The Spanish news leaked a plan by the Spanish govt a week ago concerning the up coming fear that some Spanish banks could fail.

The plan is to place banks into 3 different groups, those to be rescued, those who`ll receive some help and those who will be allowed too fail.

So far only the BBVA and Santander will be grouped into the saved group.

Today Caja Castilla la Mancha has become a saved bank.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...30-702979.html

This one in Spanish concerns clients withdrawing money, similar to Northern Rock clients in the UK.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...30-702979.html

There are also rumours that Caja Murcia is also facing a crisis.

Both the same article?

Oooops sorry.

Try.

http://www.ondacohete.com/node/265

This was back in 2008 when people were voicing concerns about the state of Caja`s in Spain.

Further info here

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...Q&refer=europe

Santander in the "saved group". What do you mean? Far more likely that Santander would be called upon to bail out the government. The bank made a net profit of 8.9 billion euros in 2008. According to this report it was the only bank that offered compensation to investors who'd lost with Madoff (may have changed since that date)

nytimes report

Remember all those scaremongers last year who were desperate to see Santander hit the skids like the British banks? It isn't going to happen.

Does anyone have a list of which bank is in which group?

Welcome to North Rock , do you want all you money ? think we be seenning this on tve like uk last year

It`s a plan of possible scenario`s before action is needed.

There is very little info about the story, which makes the situation possibly worse than one would expect.

In the beginning of 2008, only a few would have bet on the current situation.

Some in the know voiced concerns, they were hidden in the media or ridiculed.

The bigger the bank, the harder the fall, Santander may well be in the same situation as RBS, they did get hit with a reported loss of $2 Billion in December after the Bernard Madoff fraud.

Without delving deep into there business portfolio its hard to predict the stability of its business.

If you read the link I provided you'll see that they did not get hit for 2 billion - their clients who invested in the Madoff funds did. What Santander are doing is offering compensation in the form of share options. Still not an ideal situation, but better than any other banks I've heard of. Santander (and other major Spanish banks ie not the Cajas savings banks) were and are far more secure than the UK banks like RBS you quote. This is not because of any inherent national superiority, but because the banking laws became stricter in Spain in the 90s as a result of the Banesto fallout. If only regulation had been so good in the UK.... I know Cameron's lot had no policy to change this, but the fact is it happened under Mr Brown's watch, and he should pay the price and go.

With Spanish property price inflation having risen over the last 10 years at a rate at least equal to that in Northern Europe it is very unwise to assume that Spanish banks will be immune to massive balance sheet erosion when property prices are acknowledged to have corrected downwards as in the UK and US. Greater reserves will help the Spanish banks in the short term - but the question is whether those reserves can weather the unprecedented period of liquidity lock-up we are experiencing. The lack of quick and positive reaction in the money markets to the approval to the US rescue package yesterday does not bode well.

Spanish banks are lending to people over there income limits, sub prime is still an issue in Spain.

Repossession is increasing.

Its still possible to borrow over 40 yr period in Spain, some friends in late 2008re-mortgaged, they`ll be 83 when the loan ends.

This explains the current secret bailout of Spains banking system.

http://firstrung.co.uk/articles.asp?...921&cat=44-0-0

It would be intesting to see how German taxpayers feel bailing out the Spanish.

Santander one of the most secure banks on the planet. Read both positive and negative stuff here:

banco santander finance reports

As for German banks - they've not escaped the sub-prime storm either. For example, the Dusseldorf IKB Bank

bloomberg report on 4th bailout for German bank

I take all the knee-jerk "we regard Spanish as backwards compared to us" reports from likes of the Telegraph with a huge piece of salt. Last year there were plenty of Brit bloggers claiming that Santander were going to be brought down by the hedge funds. Having said that I'm glad I don't have savings with any of the Cajas. By the same reasoning I wouldn't trust the British banks either even if (or because) they're backed by the British government.

As for Austrian banks - well, probably best not to know.

Santander isn`t about to advertise its demise, so any report is a bet.