Audit to show Spain banks need up to EUR 65 bn: report

(MADRID) - An audit of Spanish banks will show they need up to 65 billion euros of fresh capital, the ABC daily said Thursday, citing a draft report by auditors Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger.

Eurozone finance ministers on Saturday agreed to make a loan of up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) available to the Spanish government to prop up banks laden with bad loans following the collapse of a real estate bubble.

Madrid has yet to say how much of this money it will ask for, wanting to wait for the results of the audits by Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger which according to ABC will be presented on June 21.

The audits will reveal capital needs of 60 billion euros ($75 billion), it said, adding Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos has already been informed of this amount.

The figure could rise to 65 billion euros "depending on the behaviour of each lender in a more or less difficult scenario."

Bankia, whose nationalisation last month pushed Spain to seek the European rescue for its banks, alone will receive 19 billion euros, ABC said.

That is the amount it requested from the government last month to clean up its accounts, the largest bailout in Spanish history.

Two other banks that have been taken over by the state, Novagalicia and CatalunyaCaixa, will each receive 10 billion euros.

Spain's largest banks, Santander, BBVA and Caixabank, along with Bankinter and KutxaBank, will not need European aid, the newspaper reported.

The amount which each bank will need will not be detailed in the final report by Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger, it added.

Banco Popular, Spain's fourth-largest bank by market capitalisation, said Monday that it would not need aid.