The three main Spanish lenders, Santander, Bbva and CaixaBank (the Catalan bank) they will have to find another 6,1 billion euros to flesh out their assets and thus cope with the new regulations for the reform of the financial system imposed by the Government.
In reality, the overall requirement would be more than double: 13,28 billion (26,5% of the total of 50 billion that the Spanish system needs), but a good part has already been budgeted in 2011.
With regard to the bank headed by Emilio Botin the impact to adapt to new regulations is 6,1 billion, but 2 billion is the capital surplus and another 1,8 billion has already been set aside in the last quarter of 2011. As if to say that Santander lacks "only" 2,3 billion to be in good standing.
For its part the BBVA needs 4 billion. Of these, 1,2 billion will be found in budget surpluses, while the remaining 2,8 billion will have to be found during operations, with a negative impact on 2012 estimated at 1,36 billion.
Finally, what until last year (before the absorption of some other small Catalan banks) was the Caixa, needs 3,18 billion, an amount that the institution will be able to easily bear thanks to the "buffer" of 6,4 billion in the 2011 budget.
