Financial system reform: Royal Decree-Law 2/2012

The Spanish Government enacted on 3rd February 2012 the Royal Decree-Law 2/2012 (the “RDL”) for the rationalization of the Spanish financial system. The main purposes of the RDL are the cleaning up of real estate exposures from the financial institutions’ balance sheets and the promotion of further concentration among them, with the aims to strengthen markets’ confidence and, ultimately, reestablish their function of channeling funds into the economy.

The main new measures implemented by the RDL focus on the followings areas:

(i) new provisioning and capital requirements in relation to real estate exposures;
(ii) changes in the types of support investments to be made by the Fund for Orderly Restructuring of Financial Entities (“FROB”); and
(iii) additional corporate governance requirements for savings banks and remuneration limitations for financial institutions that have received FROB support.