Spain

Spanish savings bank La Caixa plans to transfer its banking business to listed unit Criteria CaixaCorp SA, in a restructuring effort to improve management and its access to capital markets, The Wall Street Journal reported. Such a move by Barcelona-based La Caixa, the biggest and healthiest of the large savings banks, could set an example for other cajas to follow, analysts say.

A court ruling that could ban Banco Santander SA's chief executive from the banking industry has thrown a spotlight on succession strategy at the Spanish lender, already in disarray after the departure of one rising star last year, The Wall Street Journal reported. Alfredo Sáenz, who has been chief executive of the bank since 2002, is expected to be banned from running banks in coming weeks by Spain's Supreme Court after he was found guilty of making false criminal accusations in a 17-year-old case during his tenure at the helm of Banco Español de Crédito SA, known as Banesto.

Promotora de Informaciones SA said Tuesday it will cut its workforce by 18% through an estimated 2,500 layoffs, as part of the cash-strapped company's ongoing restructuring process, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a regulatory filing, Prisa, as the company is commonly known, said the financial cost of the move will depend on planned discussions with trade unions and workers' representatives.

Spain will overhaul its bank regulations to allow the partial nationalization of its ailing savings banks and enable the injection of fresh capital into them, in an attempt to calm investor concerns over the health of the country's financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. The change in regulation would allow Spain's state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, or FROB, to acquire direct equity stakes in the cajas for up to five years, Finance Minister Elena Salgado said at a news conference Monday.

As neighboring Portugal seems to move inexorably toward requesting a bailout, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero pledged to accelerate the cleanup of his country's opaque network of savings banks known as cajas, The Wall Street Journal reported. This means the cajas for the first time will disclose the extent of their exposure to troubled real-estate and construction loans, a move that could trigger injections of government funds into some of the banks. The cleanup effort is part of Spain's attempt to convince investors it isn't another Portugal or Ireland.

China's Vice Premier Li Keqiang said China will sign $7.3 billion worth of deals with Spain on Wednesday, according to a Spanish official, after reiterating Beijing's pledge to back the crisis-ridden European nation's austerity measures and offer of potential support for Spain's future fundraising, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr.

China supports Spain's economic reforms and will continue buying Spanish government debt, Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang wrote in a newspaper editorial, the latest sign of China's growing role in protecting the stability of the European Union, its largest export market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Spain has faced increasing difficulties in financing a yawning budget deficit after Greece's financial meltdown in early 2010 sparked concerns about the problems of other fiscally frail euro-zone countries.

Spain said that its regional governments are on track to meet their budget targets this year, its latest effort to quell investor fears that it could be the next European country to need a financial bailout, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Facing intense market pressure, Spain for the first time opened its regions' books before year-end in a bid to address investor worries that the regions' deteriorating accounts could derail the government's austerity drive.

Many smaller Spanish companies are fighting for survival amid the country's biggest economic slump in decades, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Spain is also at the heart of a sovereign-debt crisis in Europe, which has been boiling over in recent weeks. Financial markets fear Spain will follow Greece and Ireland and eventually need a bailout, but a bailout for the larger Spanish economy is the worst-case scenario for markets that fear it could destabilize the euro zone.

For months, Spain's residential mortgage sector has performed an impressive feat: Despite tumbling home prices and sky-high unemployment, just a small portion of mortgage borrowers have fallen behind on their payments. Now, some analysts and economists are wondering if Spain is in for a wave of defaults in coming months amid further job cuts meant to address the country's broader economic problems, The Wall Street Journal reported.