On the face of it, Spain's savings banks, or cajas, would seem to have chosen the least auspicious moment in their 200-year history to make a pitch to the international capital markets. Only three days after the EU announced that five of Spain's cajas were among seven banks to fail the EU stress test of 91 banks, the savings banks association (CECA) embarked on a European roadshow to sell their story to potential investors. The five cajas that failed the stress test were found to have a Tier 1 capital ratio of less than 6%, meaning they would face a capital shortfall of €3.5bn in another recessionary scenario.
But CECA's deputy general manager, Jorge Gil, argues that the results were in fact good news for the sector, which accounts for nearly half of the Spanish financial system. "The stress test was in fact good news for us," says Mr Gil. "Of course, we would have preferred to see all the cajas pass the test. But if you put this into context, you see that Spain has not gone through a sample stress test, but instead has tested 95% of the Spanish financial sector.
