Spain's financial institutions are positioned quite differently than they were in 1999. Since then the number of banks has fallen from 49 to 15, and several venerable savings banks have lost their top-ranked spots on the Spanish stock market. This trend is worsening.
Two weeks ago Bankia sold 4.19% of its position in Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), obtaining 70.12 million euros in the sale and turning a profit of 8 million euros.
The oldest savings banks, many of them converted into newly modified banking entities, have become a much smaller part of the Spanish stock market. Six years ago their controlled 6% of the Spanish stock market by market capitalization, and currently they only hold around 3%. Total invested banking capital has shrunk from nearly a trillion euros to little more than 460 billion euro. In other words, since the crisis began, market capitalization for Spanish savings banks has dropped by nearly half. From other divestments and plunging stock prices, the savings banks have lost more than 25 billion euros.
Many savings banks have been absorbed by or purchased by other financial entities, causing some of them to divest themselves of funds that were critical revenue sources. In the meantime, some have cleaned up unhealthy balance sheets, and primary shareholders have changed for many of the banks.
But this is not true for La Caixa, which is the biggest savings bank in Spain by market capitalization and was so even before it bought Banca Cívica earlier this week for around one billion euros.
La Caixa is the majority shareholder for some public companies. It controls 28.5% of Abertis and some stakes in the risk capital fund CVC and the construction company ACS.
