[Anonymous]

How safe is your money in a Spanish Bank account. Do they have a similiar bonding as UK banks? Under FSA regulations they are covered for £35k with the government looking at increasing to £50k per account. Is there the same protection in Spain?
The banks in Spain are taking big hits with the likes of Fadesa and pretty sure many more will follow. How safe is our money?
Any info would be appreciated. Putting under the mattress seems like a good idea in the current climate.!
Rach.

[Anonymous]

Very hard to know, as usual everything in Spain is supposed to be rosy.
Santander has taken over the Alliance and Leicester today , so they have quite a foothold in the UK with them owning the Shabby National, whether this is a good thing or not time will tell.

Spanish bank share prices have been really weak over the last week. This could be due though to the problems of the Fanny Craddock bank in the States.

I know Spanish banks did some really bad lending based on high valuations , and with unemployment likely to rocket in the Autumn bad debts can only increase. Developers are really up against it, and the banks here will have to write millions of their values.

Probably the savings banks are more vulnerable than the big ones ,Santander,BBVA, Popular etc.

Based on feeling more than economic reality, I would expect a few banks ,savings banks that is , to go under. One should be safe with any of the big four.

Not vey scientific, but with a weak government in Madrid who may or may not support banks if the shove comes to push, I cannot believe anyone can forecast what will happen to Spanish banks over the next two years.
There are so many impònderables, will the Euro survive in its present form?. Will the European Union survive in its present state ?

[Anonymous]

This brings up a very important topic because everyone should be cautious who they park their money with.
Hopefully someone will be able to tell us exactly who is insured and for how much. & on a practical note -how many months or years would it take to get the money back?
I find the Spanish banks to be a highly suspect bunch because they expect us to believe that they didn’t get caught up in the US sub prime mess. The fact that Santander is able to purchase A&L could almost be taken as proof that they are not being properly regulated -who else is going on a spending spree right now?

[mike]

@forestfire wrote:

This brings up a very important topic because everyone should be cautious who they park their money with.
Hopefully someone will be able to tell us exactly who is insured and for how much. & on a practical note -how many months or years would it take to get the money back?
I find the Spanish banks to be a highly suspect bunch because they expect us to believe that they didn’t get caught up in the US sub prime mess. The fact that Santander is able to purchase A&L could almost be taken as proof that they are not being properly regulated -who else is going on a spending spree right now?

It would be a very good service for the government to provide. Unfortunately it may expose the marketing ploy of conduits, high street brands being used as trustworthy lenders, in other words expose how the fruad was implemented ( I an getting cynical)

[Anonymous]

There are distinctions to be made between bancos and cajas de ahorros (a bit like the old fashioned system of banks and building societies we used to have in the UK).
http://revista.consumer.es/web/es/20050101/actualidad/tema_de_portada/
http://www.tengodeudas.com/consejos/banco-o-caja-de-ahorros
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_bank_(Spain)

[Anonymous]

Rach,

As Drakan once pointed out, deposits in Spain are guaranteed by the govt. up to €20k. More info here:
http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22093

Mark

[Anonymous]

Where is Draken. If he is upset with us, I apologize to him on behalf of the whole forum.

[Anonymous]

@mark wrote:

Rach,

As Drakan once pointed out, deposits in Spain are guaranteed by the govt. up to €20k. More info here:
http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22093

Mark

Thankyou Mark.
The link for http://www.fgd.es is very useful. It lists all member banks, savings banks and credit associations that are covered by the deposit bond.
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Rach

[Anonymous]

RachelW – looked at “fqd.es” and it appears very useful. Unfortunately, my spanish isn’t quite up to the mark!! Can you tell me whether Banco Santander is listed please?
Thx.

[Anonymous]

cbogan wrote:

RachelW – looked at “fqd.es” and it appears very useful. Unfortunately, my spanish isn’t quite up to the mark!! Can you tell me whether Banco Santander is listed please?
Thx.

There is a Union Jack flag in the top right hand corner for English translation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks – hadn’t spotted that…..

[Author]

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