Spain's Santander plans to invest in the country's so-called bad bank in a sign that healthy domestic lenders are willing to support the entity created to clean up the aftermath of a 2008 property crash. "The bank plans on investing in the bad bank," a spokesman for Santander, Spain's biggest bank, told Reuters on Saturday.
Spain has set up the bad bank to siphon off toxic real estate assets from bank balance sheets that date from the property crash. The bad bank's creation is a condition of receiving up to 100 billion euros ($127 billion) of aid in a European bail-out of the country's financial sector.
Spain's second biggest bank, BBVA, is considering investing in the vehicle, but has yet to make a decision, a BBVA spokesman told Reuters on Saturday. Sabadell is also considering investing but has not yet made a decision, a Sabadell spokesman said.