Spanish regulation

The FT reports on Spanish banks and finds two important regulations that have insulated them from some of the problems that have hit other banks.

But Spain’s bankers agree that they were kept virtuous largely by the stern regulators at the Bank of Spain. The central bank achieved this in two ways. It made it so expensive for financial institutions to establish off-balance sheet vehicles – of the sort that subsequently sunk banks elsewhere – that few Spanish banks bothered. It also demanded in the good years that banks set aside “generic” bad loan provisions in addition to provisions for specific risks, a sensibly counter-cyclical regime that has been much remarked on abroad since the crisis began. Santander, for example, has built up more than €6bn of generic loan loss provisions.

These are regulations that are likely to be adopted in other countries.