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MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Spain's recently created bank bailout fund, the FROB, was necessary largely to deal with the country's unlisted savings banks, which are bearing the brunt of the country's economic and financial crisis, Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said Friday.
"One of the main differences between the current situation and previous financial crises, is, unlike what happened in the past, savings banks have not been immune," Fernandez Ordonez said at a conference on banking regulation.
The central bank chief added that new Spanish legislation gives the FROB the authority to acquire voting shares at savings banks it injects capital into and gives the Bank of Spain authority to approve savings bank mergers.
Savings banks have a complicated ownership structure in which employees, depositors and local and regional governments share power, and regional governments had the power to approve mergers.
This structure has made it more difficult for savings banks to raise new capital and for a sector widely viewed as bloated--after a decade-long housing and credit boom--to consolidate.
In an interview earlier this month with the Financial Times, Fernandez Ordonez said he thought a third of the country's 45 savings banks should be absorbed by stronger institutions.
Fernandez Ordonez is also a member of the European Central Bank's governing council.
- By Jonathan House, Dow Jones Newswires; 34 619 93 39 52; jonathan.house@dowjones.com
(Christopher Bjork contributed to this report)
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Publié le 27 novembre 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones

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