Fusion Fever

Although it seems the English-language press refers to 'negotiations', the local rags are describing the fusion between the number two and number three cajas - Caja Madrid and Bancaja - as a done deal. The resulting behemoth would be larger than La Caixa and the new top two would comprise over 40% of the assets in the sector. Clearly, the Bank of Spain sees more risk in the continued fragmentation of the regional savings banks than in the possibility that they are creating institutions too-big-to-fail. Our guess is the new entity will slop up 4 or 5 billion euros from the Spanish bank restructuring pool.

Thanks to data from Cajas y Bancos, we've popped up a slightly dated Google spreadsheet showing assets, relative size and NPL ratios for (almost) all of the regionals. Readers can find it here. It should be kept in mind that amalgamations, in progress or agreed, are not shown.

Readers also might note the new gizmo in the sidebar. It will keep them up to date on Spanish bond auctions.

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