Spain's Bankia logs EUR 7bn loss to September

(MADRID) - Ruined Spanish banking giant Bankia suffered more than seven billion euros ($9 million) in losses in the first nine months of this year, it said Friday.

The group at the heart of Spain's financial crisis said in a statement that it had to make 11.485 billion euros in provisions as it cleaned up its balance sheet, stricken by masses of bad loans.

It recorded a net loss of 2.6 billion euros in the third quarter, after reporting for the previous quarter a loss of 4.45 billion euros. Total losses for January to September were 7.053 billion euros.

Formed in 2010 from a merger of seven troubled regional savings banks and listed on the market in July 2011, Bankia was nationalised in May, sparking a broader bailout of Spain's financial sector by its eurozone neighbours.

The bank said it would need a total of 23.5 billion euros to salvage its balance sheet, which is loaded with risky loans that turned sour after a 2008 property crash.

In September the government made a 4.5-billion-euro injection of treasury bills into Bankia, as an advance payment on a eurozone banking rescue loan of up to 100 billion euros that was agreed in June.