Caixabank plans to lay off 18% of staff after merger with Bankia
Financial institution intends to close 1,534 offices across Spain
bankia
Caixabank completes fusion with Bankia to become largest financial institution in Spain
New bank will have nearly 20 million clients, €623.8 billion in assets and market capitalization of over €20.5 billion
Caixabank and Bankia shareholders confirm merger
Acquisition will see companies create the biggest financial institution in Spain with €650 billion in assets
Caixabank absorbs Bankia: the birth of Spain’s largest lender, in figures
What percentage of the new bank’s assets will each group own
Caixabank and Bankia reach merger deal to become Spain’s largest bank
Boards of directors set to greenlight plan to create financial institution worth around €650bn on Thursday
Caixabank and Bankia in talks over a possible merger
Both the Catalan entity and the financial institution partly owned by the Spanish government are part of Spain's top 4 banks
Caixabank in talks with Bankia for a fusion
Both the entity with Catalan origins and the financial institution partly owned by the Spanish government are part of Spain's top 4 banks
Catalan Government finally approves tax on empty flats owned by financial institutions
The Catalan Government approved on Tuesday a measure to impose a tax on empty flats owned by financial institutions. The aim of the tax is to incentivise banks to rent out the empty homes. Santi Vila, the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, said that the "mere announcement" of the tax has already caused Sareb [Spain's public 'bad bank'], Catalunya Caixa and Bankia to yield to the Government 1,230 apartments for social rent. During the press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Vila pointed out that the new tax will not apply to individuals and will only be intended for flats that have been taken out of the market for more than two years. The Minister also said that the measure is not simply about "tax collection" but is instead to ease the access to housing market in the midst of a housing crisis.
CatalunyaCaixa would need an additional €4.5 billion to meet the last financial requirements
According to the Bank of Spain’s Deputy Governor, the Catalan bank would need an additional amount of €4.5 billion to meet the capital requirements of the last decree approved by the Spanish Government. Before this announcement, the Spanish State had already allocated €2.97 billion to rescue CatalunyaCaixa. Novagalicia would also need €4.5 billion. Combined, these €9 billion are to be added to the €19 billion for Bankia. The Spanish Government refuses to give the total figure required by the entire banking system, as it waits for the independent audit’s results. However, the IMF leaked that Spanish banks might need €40 billion.
Banc Sabadell’s President defends the work of the current Bank of Spain Governor
Josep Oliu, President of Banc Sabadell, thinks that if somebody is to be made responsible for the current crisis, a thorough analysis of the decisions of sector managers during the 2003-2007 period should be made, and not among those currently in charge. Oliu, who has been a banker “all his life”, feels he is a “victim” of a situation provoked by managers who were “not acting as bankers”. The Catalan banker recognised that the Spanish banking system can still face the new requirements on its own but it is getting “closer to the limit of its own economic capacity”. Besides, Oliu was very satisfied with the European Commission’s green light for CAM’s integration into Banc Sabadell’s business.
Catalan economists ask for European public funds to restructure Spanish Banks
Considering the “exceptional” crisis Spain’s banking system is going through, the Cercle d’Economia, a Catalan economic forum open to businesspeople and academics, recommends “drastic” measures in order to face a “systemic” problem at European level. The Chairman of Cercle d’Economia, former Spanish Minister Josep Piqué, stated that Spain “will not succeed on its own”.
Spanish banks will use their own resources to get the 26,121 million euros needed according to the new rules
The Spanish stock exchange celebrated the European Summit’s results by increasing 4.96% in a one day of trading. The main managers of the Spanish banks are convinced they will get the requested core capital with their own resources. In addition, they believe they will need 13.5 billion euros, and not 26.1 once the detailed calculations are made. Spanish financial circles consider the new rules, adopted to counteract French and German banks’ exposition to Greek sovereign debt, do not particularly benefit Spanish banks, which almost do not hold any Greek debt. In addition, as was the case with the stress tests, the criteria to analyse the bank situation ignores Spain’s proposals and imposes those benefiting German banks.
Two Catalan banks fail the stress tests in worst case scenarios but would be approved if all provisions would have been taken into account
Unnim and CatalunyaCaixa would have 4.5% and 4.8% of core capital respectively. However, the provisions that all Spanish banks must have to face difficult times have not been taken into account as they did not exist in other European banking systems. With these funds taken into account, Unnim and CatalunyaCaixa would have approved the tests with 6.2% and 6.3% respectively. CaixaBank, the most important Catalan bank passes the test with 6.4%.