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WorldDecember 3 2012

Spain's survival of the fittest

Only Spain's largest banks have been able to absorb the losses from the country's troubled real estate sector, which has left the main lenders in a strong position to increase their market share.
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Spain's survival of the fittest

When the dust finally settles on the most turbulent financial crisis in Spain’s modern history, the country’s banks will have shrunk in number to about 10, compared with 51 in 2008, according to Ángel Cano, president and chief operating officer of BBVA, Spain’s second largest bank by assets. “Moreover," he says, "Spain will have one of Europe’s healthiest and soundest banking industries, and it will also be very profitable.”     

It seems that following a difficult few years, Spain's largest banks, the few that will survive the crisis, are optimistic about the future of the Spanish banking system. According to Santander’s chairman, Emilio Botín, the restructuring of the Spanish financial system is extremely rigorous and will leave the country with one of the most solid financial systems in the world. “Alongside these reforms," he says, "we are seeing a reorganisation and restructuring of financial systems. Spain’s case is undoubtedly the most intense and will turn it into one of the most solid financial systems in the world.”

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