Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos rejected merging Spain's three fully nationalised banks after an auction attempt failed, and as the government seeks a way to privatise them by an EU-imposed deadline of 2017. Spain has been looking into a full or partial merger of rescued Bankia and Catalunya Banc, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last week, after the sale of the latter collapsed when offers fell short of expectations.
A third lender, NCG Banco, based in the north-western region of Galicia, is fully owned by bank restructuring fund FROB. "We have three banks 100 percent-owned by the FROB, and logically there will be a co-ordination of plans between the three," Economy Ministry Luis de Guindos said in an interview with Spanish television on Monday. "They will absolutely not be merged," he said. The banks are three of the biggest casualties of Spain's property market crash five years ago.
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