Banco Popular fails and is bought by Santander
EVEN a bank failure can be presented as a triumph. This week Banco Popular, a big Spanish lender, endured a run. Depositors were said to be withdrawing €2bn ($2.2bn) a day. The bank lost half its stockmarket value in four days, as a self-imposed deadline to find a saviour loomed. On June 6th, it was declared by the Single Resolution Board (SRB), an independent agency of the European Central Bank formed in 2015 and charged with winding down banks, to be “failing or likely to fail”. The next morning, Santander, Spain’s biggest bank, announced its purchase for the symbolic sum of €1 ($1.10). It is to raise €7bn in capital to help absorb Popular’s property-related losses.
Spain’s government, the European Commission and Santander all cheered the outcome as a model European response to a bank crisis. Shareholders and junior bondholders in Popular have been wiped out. Spanish ministers pointed out that taxpayers would not have to pay for a rescue of the sort arranged for Bankia, a giant savings bank nearing collapse, when Spain needed a banking bail-out in 2012. Ana Botín, Santander’s boss, declared the deal good for Spain, for Europe, for Popular’s 4.4m customers and for her shareholders. Santander’s market leadership in Spain and Portugal will be strengthened.
The cheerleaders do have a point. Compared with previous banking disasters, this one has been...