Spain

To understand why Europe is having if not another banking crisis then at least a serious banking wobble, you need look no further than Bankia. The Spanish lender came to symbolise everything that went wrong in Spain during the crisis. And it is doing the same again in 2016, the Financial Times reported. Bankia was the highest-profile casualty of Spain’s property market collapse and subsequent meltdown in the banking sector.

Moody’s has given troubled Spanish renewable energy group Abengoa a small but much needed vote of confidence at a crucial stage in its fight for survival, saying its underlying operating business is still “viable” although the ratings agency also acknowledges that the company could still end up insolvent, fastFT reported. Abengoa spelled out earlier this week that it needs €826m of cash this year to stay on its feet, plus a further €304m in 2017. These sums don’t include contributions from sales of assets.

Indebted Spanish energy group Abengoa needs 826 million euros ($922 million) of fresh cash to make it until the end of the year and a further 304 million euros in 2017, the company said. The engineering and renewable energy company could become the country's biggest-ever bankruptcy if it fails to agree on a wide-ranging debt restructuring with creditor banks and bondholders by March 28, Reuters reported.

Spanish Abengoa has asked its creditors for a loan of up to 750 million euros ($843 million) to keep it afloat while its lenders discuss a financial plan to avoid it becoming Spain's biggest bankruptcy, a source close to the talks said. "Abengoa has asked for 650 million to 750 million euros in additional liquidity," the source said on Wednesday, adding that this was on top of around 160 million euros Abengoa is requesting from bondholders.

Spanish energy and engineering firm Abengoa will present its long-awaited viability plan to creditors on Wednesday in a bid to avoid becoming Spain's biggest bankruptcy, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Seville-based company must agree on a restructuring plan with creditors before the end of March or enter into a full-blown insolvency process.

Princess Cristina of Spain will face tax fraud charges next month after a court rejected a final attempt by her lawyers on Friday to exempt her from a corruption case that has badly damaged the reputation of Spain’s monarchy, the International New York Times reported. The court’s decision means that Princess Cristina will appear in February alongside 17 other defendants in a case that centers on whether her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, and his business partners embezzled about 6 million euros, or $6.5 million, that regional authorities disbursed for organizing sports events.

The Spanish Supreme Court ordered Bankia on Wednesday to reimburse two small investors for misleading them during its 2011 initial public offering, the International New York Times reported. Under the ruling Bankia must pay one investor nearly 10,000 euros, or about $10,850, and the other nearly €21,000 euros, to cover their purchases of shares that eventually were nearly worthless. The ruling could be a boon to thousands of other investors who are suing the bank, accusing it of failing to fully disclose the loan problems that nearly caused the bank’s collapse in 2012.

Spain's Abengoa needs 90 million euros within 10 days and 500 million euros by March 28 to avoid going bust, a source familiar with the matter said, a number that more than doubles initial calculations and raises new doubts over its survival, Reuters reported. The engineering and renewable energy firm is currently busy working on a viability plan that it hopes will convince creditor banks and bondholders to provide this emergency liquidity, the source also said.

Power companies with wind-generation capacity could take over transmission line projects in Brazil operated by Abengoa SA after the Spanish construction group's insolvency filing halted work on the systems, Reuters reported. Candidates include groups like Renova Energia SA and CPFL Renovaveis SA that would lose revenue if the transmission lines go unfinished or remain inactive, three specialists with knowledge of the discussions said on Monday. Any proposal to take over Abengoa's rights would require approval from Brazil's electrical power regulator Aneel.

The long-awaited trial of Spain’s Princess Cristina de Borbón and her husband on tax-fraud charges opened Monday, presenting a challenge for King Felipe VI as he tries to rebuild the monarchy’s prestige and assert its influence in the country’s unsettled politics, The Wall Street Journal reported. The king’s 50-year-old sister—the first sibling of a Spanish monarch to ever be tried, according to historians—faces up to eight years in jail if convicted on two counts of tax fraud.