Take a number

Curiously, last week we were going post a short piece on the writer's wife's recent trip to the Bank of Spain. We didn't, and now wish we had. It would have gone something like this:

After accompanying her recently retired brother down to Alcalá, 48, following his decision to invest in the following week's issue of letras, she remarked that:

At 11 AM, he was assigned ticket number 260 for the retail window and that number 152 was the last number called;

and that almost everybody in line was noticeably old - this in the eyes of someone pushing 60.

....................

Eight days later, Expansión reports:

The Treasury issues more than the announced maximum in the face of strong retail demand.

Despite the coming apart of everything euro, with a 3.1 bid-to-cover the 12-month yield, at 4.08 percent, was 112 bps lower than last month's issue. The 18-month yield dropped 107 bps to 4.25 percent - b/c of 5. The total issue was expanded from 4.5 billion euros to just shy of 5.

Yields of all maturities reacted by coming down in the secondary market - the 2-year by 31 points.

Big losers in all this are the banks and their 4.5 percent term deposits.

And, speaking of banks, rumours abound that the large collection of ratty former cajas, Bankia, is actively seeking an amalgamation with either BBVA of CaixaBank. Prattle from the couple of bank managers that we're on friendly terms with has it that, within 'a couple of years', there won't be more than '4 or 5' retail financial institutions operating in the country.

We're not exactly sure about the timeline, but the general gist is pretty realistic.

----------------------------