(Adds details) MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Spain's Banco Santander SA (STD) Sunday reported one of the biggest exposures so far of any European institution to the alleged fraud committed at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
In a release, Spain's largest bank by market capitalization and assets said its clients have an exposure of EUR2.33 billion to Madoff. It said EUR2.01 billion of this amount belongs to institutional investors and international private banking customers that invested in its Optimal Strategic hedge fund. The remaining EUR320 million belongs to other Santander private banking customers.
According to its Web site, Santander's Optimal hedge fund unit has around EUR10.5 billion in assets under management.
Santander added it had invested EUR17 million of its own funds at Madoff.
The Bank of Spain has launched a probe to determine the total exposure of Spanish institutions to Madoff, El Mundo newspaper reported Sunday.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBV), Spain's second largest bank, has no exposure to Madoff, a bank spokesman said Saturday.
New York-based Madoff is alleged to have lost $50 billion in a giant pyramid scheme that collapsed in the global financial crisis.
-By Jonathan House, Dow Jones Newswires; +34 619 93 93 52; jonathan.house@dowjones.com
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Publié le 14 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones