Failed Spain bank CAM logs 2.7 bn loss in 2011

Failed Spanish savings bank Caja Mediterraneo announced losses of 2.713 billion euros ($3.6 billion) in 2011, in a financial statement released Wednesday. The bank known as CAM, formerly Spain's 10th biggest, was taken over by Banco Sabadell as part of a shake-up to stabilise the financial sector which was hit hard by the collapse of a building boom in 2008. Its earnings figures filed to the Spanish stock market authority on Wednesday night showed it had taken a hit of 2.383 billion euros from the fall in value of its financial assets, leading to a net loss for the year of 2.713 billion. Spanish banks are lumbered with housing loans that turned bad after the collapse and properties that have lost value. The conservative government last week approved a law obliging the banks to set up a financial safety net totalling 50 billion euros. Sabadell's executive director Jaime Guardiola in December estimated the total losses weighing on CAM at 12 billion euros at least. Under the agreement to sell CAM to Banco Sabadell, Spain's bank rescue fund will provide some relief, assuming 80 percent of CAM's losses over 10 years. Spain has spent 17.55 billion euros in two waves of restructuring of the finance industry since 2009. The central bank took charge of CAM in July and offloaded it for 5.249 billion euros to a public guarantee fund, which sold it on to Catalonia-based Banco Sabadell for a symbolic one euro in December. CAM is based in the eastern coastal region of Alicante which was one of the worst hit by the bursting of the property bubble. The subsequent economic downturn has worsened, accompanied by tough austerity measures aimed at stabilising the public finances.