Spain’s biggest bank created as CaixaBank buys recently formed merger Banca Cívi

[aspasia]

At the beginning of 2010, CajaCanarias merged with Caja Navarra (CAN), Caja de Burgos and Sa Nostra, calling the new group Banca Cívica (see HERE). The merger saw Banca Cívica become the sixth largest Spanish bank in terms of banking activity, and the fourth largest in terms of solvency. In February of this year, however, Banca Cívica announced that 156 branches were to close with the loss of 1,480 jobs (see HERE).

Now,  Banca Cívica has itself been bought by CaixaBank, creating Spain's biggest bank in terms of assets. The purchase, which will be completed by the third quarter of 2012, will cost CaixaBank €977 million, and was enabled by legislation allowing banks to merge in order to avoid potential collapse in Spain's economic crisis. With its new purchase, CaixaBank will have around 14 million customers, assets of €342 billion, deposits of €179 billion, and loans of €231 billion, it announced yesterday. JAA

[Nova]

I heard something about this earlier but wasn't really listening 

My first thought now is, how do Caixabank have 977 million euros to spare at a time like this? 

[aspasia]

I imagine it's on paper from all the bloody properties they've repossessed because people can't pay their mortgages because they can't rent out any more ..... 

[Nova]

I can't imagine even the Bank of Spain lending that amount of cash based on a portfolio of repos    A cartera of reliable clients who are still paying their mortgages is worth far more as far as I know....  Or the cash raised by pasivo and products such as preferentes