Within the space of six days, Europe has taken crucial decisions on the future of two banks that embody Italy and Spain’s very different approaches to navigating a financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. On one hand there is Banco Popular, Spain’s sixth-largest lender, which was sold to Banco Santander in the early hours of Wednesday after a frantic night’s work by EU and Spanish regulators.

The regime to deal with failing European banks cleared its first major hurdle Wednesday as the market shrugged off the resolution of Banco Popular and the wipeout of its subordinated debt, Reuters reported. After watching the bank wobble on the edge of insolvency for months, regulators eased market jitters with a relatively swift winding up of the Spanish lender. The Single Resolution Board bailed in the sub debt, wrote down the shares and Additional Tier 1 instruments, converted the Tier 2 debt to new equity - and won wide praise for doing so.

Worries about Banco Popular’s stuttering sale process sent shares to another record low on Monday morning, after two of the main potential bidders pulled out of the auction with less than a week to go, the Financial Times reported. The Spanish government appealed for calm on Friday as the bank’s shares dropped sharply, but investors appeared to be unconvinced on Monday morning. Shares in Popular were down a further 12.1 per cent at publication time at €0.363, having hit a low of €0.336.

Shares in Spanish lender Banco Popular have shed over 8 per cent this morning to at least a 28-year low, following reports that senior EU officials have warned the bank could be wound down if it fails to find a buyer. Yesterday, Reuters reported that Elke Koenig, the head of the eurozone body that winds up failing banks, issued an “early warning” on the state of the lender’s fate if it fails to complete a merger. Earlier this month, Spain’s sixth largest bank said it had received several approaches about a merger.

Spanish engineering company Isolux said on Friday it had activated the formal process aimed at avoiding insolvency, as it battles to secure enough money to remain in business, Reuters reported. Under Spanish law, companies can enter into debt restructuring proceedings that give them up to four months to reach an agreement with creditors to avoid a full-blown insolvency process and a potential bankruptcy. Isolux has over 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in restructured debt, according to an update on its restructuring process published in December.

A major Spanish energy provider is fighting the Colombian government’s seizure of its assets on the country’s Caribbean coast, threatening to take South America’s third-largest economy to international arbitration, the Financial Times reported. Colombia’s services regulator said it has ordered the liquidation of power supplier Electricaribe, an affiliate of Spain’s Gas Natural, due to a lack of quality, solvency and investment.

Consumer prices rose at their fastest level since 2012 in Spain, marking a fresh four-year high for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, the Financial Times reported. Rises in transport and housing pushed Spain’s harmonized index of consumer prices up to 3 per cent in February from the same period the previous year. On a monthly basis, prices fell 0.3 per cent compared to January. Both figures were in line with initial estimates from Spain’s statistics office at the end of February.

Spain’s inflation rate has been confirmed at a more than four year high of 2.9 per cent in January, coming in just below a 3 per cent initial estimate but still underscoring the diverging inflationary performances of countries in the Eurozone, the Financial Times reported. EU-harmonised consumer prices in the eurozone’s fourth largest economy leapt from 1.6 per cent in December, pushed up by the cost of housing and electricity. The 2.9 per cent reading is the highest since December 2012.

Spain’s highest criminal court has launched a probe against the former heads of the central bank and the stock market regulator, declaring them formal suspects over their failure to stop the ill-fated flotation of Bankia, the Financial Times reported. The bailout and nationalisation of Bankia marked the nadir of Spain’s 2012 financial crisis and forced the government to request financial aid from its EU partners. The sprawling savings bank went on to absorb more than €20bn in state support and posted the biggest loss in Spanish corporate history.

Santander is considering ways to issue a new type of senior bond well in advance of the requisite legislation being passed, allowing it to chip away at an approximate 30bn issuance target over the next two years, Reuters reported. The Spanish bank said on Wednesday that it will issue 16bn-20bn in 2017 and another 12bn-15.5bn in 2018 of so-called senior non-preferred, set to become a major new asset class as European banks respond to regulatory demands to beef up their loss absorbing buffers.