Spanish Banks 'Weathering the Crisis' Well
September 16th, 2010
Spanish banks are well placed to meet the more stringent capital requirements of Basel III, the association of Spain’s listed banks, or AEB, said Monday.
“In principle, Spanish banks fulfill the capital requirements of the [Basel III] agreement, or are perfectly able to do so in the required time frame,” the AEB said in a statement.
The Spanish business association of non-listed savings banks, the CECA, declined to comment.
Regulators over the weekend agreed to a new and stricter framework for how much capital a bank must have as a percentage of assets on their books. The new rules, which were agreed in Basel, Switzerland, aim to prevent the types of risky activities that triggered the global financial crisis in 2008.
At the core of the new rules, international banks will need to increase the amount of common equity requirement to at least 7% of assets, more than the 2% international standard or the 4% required by U.S. banks. They will have several years to phase in the new standards.
Speaking at a meeting with journalists in Oslo, Norway, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero welcomed the new capital rules. “It’s a good decision to preventatively strengthen the capital requirements of financial institutions. That’s acting with good sense and a sense of responsibility,” Zapatero said in comments broadcast by Spanish broadcaster CNN+.
Zapatero added that the Spanish financial system has weathered the crisis very well as Spain already had in place preventative measures that went further than those of other countries.
Story from Wall Street Journal
Related Posts
- Spanish Property Crisis Undermines Local Banks
- Spain Urges Banks to Keep Lending
- Spanish Banks in Search of Capital
