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Spain’s Most Italian Bank Still “Solvent,” Claims Finance Minister
wolfstreet.com / by Don Quijones /
It just doesn’t let up with this bank.
The future continues to look bleak for Spain’s most Italian bank, Banco Popular, which ironically once bore the slogan “Our Past and Our Present Guarantee Our Future.” Things have gotten so bad that when the country’s Minister of Finance Luis de Guindos was asked by a reporter today about the bank’s state of health, he responded: “the bank is solvent.” Which is kind of like a doctor saying, “the patient is alive.” Not exactly reassuring.
Popular just had its worst day of 2017 after seeing its penny stock tumble over 10%, from €0.90 to €0.82. This is a bank that was once ranked among the world’s most profitable by ratings company IBCA and which not so long ago boasted a share price of over €15. That was before its management decided to bet the farm on risky real estate investments at the height of an insane property bubble and then took too long to clean up afterward.
Even now, nine years after the the bubble’s crash, roughly a quarter of Popular’s total loan portfolio is still concentrated in the real estate and construction sectors. In November last year. it had over €30 billion worth of bad loans and non-performing assets on its books, which it continues to struggle to offload without incurring fatal losses. It was also the country’s worst performing bank in the ECB’s last stress test.
The post Spain’s Most Italian Bank Still “Solvent,” Claims Finance Minister appeared first on Silver For The People.
Source: http://silveristhenew.com/2017/04/04/spains-most-italian-bank-still-solvent-claims-finance-minister/
