Spanish Business News

MADRID — Spain's ailing regional savings banks are scrambling to raise billions of euros of fresh funds to meet strict new capital requirements by a Thursday deadline.

The country's 17 savings banks, known as "cajas," are weighed down by loans that turned sour after the collapse of a housing bubble in 2008 and are at the heart of fears the country could need an Irish-style international rescue.

Last month the government approved stricter rules on the amount of rock-solid core capital that banks must hold on their balance sheets, seeking to shore up confidence in the battered economy.

Under the new rules, savings banks must raise the proportion of core capital they hold to 8.0 percent of total assets from the current six percent, or 10.0 percent if they are unlisted.

The Bank of Spain will determine Thursday which savings banks have met the new core capital requirements and in the case of those that have fallen short, how much capital they need to raise to meet the new requirements.

Up to 11 of Spain's 17 regional savings banks will need additional capital to reach the levels of solvency set by the government, the ratings agency Standard & Poor's said last month.

The government estimates that all the savings banks will need to raise 20 billion euros to meet the new requirements, a figure many analysts describe as too low.

The state is threatening to take temporary stakes -- a form of nationalisation -- in those lenders that fail to abide by the new rules by September.

Credit rating agency Moody's put a 50-billion-euro price tag Monday on the recapitalising of Spanish banks hit by the property market collapse.

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