Banesto’s Shrinking Loans Herald Spanish Recession: Euro Credit
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Banco Espanol de Credito SA’s dwindling loan book is symptomatic of the risk that Spain’s economy will slump into a recession.
The bank, which is known as Banesto and is a unit of Banco Santander SA, the nation’s biggest financial firm, cut lending by 8.6 percent last year, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report published yesterday. The pullback at the first Spanish bank to report 2011 results accelerated from 7 percent in the nine months through September.