Friday, May 25, 2012

Spain's Bankia to ask for $23BN state aid

FILE - In this Friday, April 20, 2012 file photo Spanish Government spokeswoman and Deputy Premier Soraya Saenz de Santamaria points her pen during a press conference following the conservative government's weekly Cabinet meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid. Spain's market regulator suspended trading of shares in bailed-out Bankia on Friday May 25, 2012, ahead of a key board meeting at which the lender is expected to decide how much more rescue money it needs from the government. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza, file)

FILE - In this Friday, April 20, 2012 file photo Spanish Government spokeswoman and Deputy Premier Soraya Saenz de Santamaria points her pen during a press conference following the conservative government's weekly Cabinet meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid. Spain's market regulator suspended trading of shares in bailed-out Bankia on Friday May 25, 2012, ahead of a key board meeting at which the lender is expected to decide how much more rescue money it needs from the government. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza, file)

A woman uses an ATM cash point machine at a branch of the Bankia bank in Madrid Thursday May 17, 2012. A recently nationalized Spanish bank's shares plummeted Thursday after a newspaper said depositors were rushing to withdraw money, while the country paid sharply higher interest rates in a debt auction, reflecting concerns the country will be caught up in the fallout of the Greek crisis. Logo says ' Welcome to Bankia'. (AP Photo/Paul White)

People is seen reflected in the glass building of the Bankia bank headquarters in Madrid, Friday, May 18, 2012. Shares in Bankia, SA, a recently nationalized bank that is heavily laden with toxic assets _ shot back up 24 percent after losing 14 percent Thursday in a session in which they had plummeted as much as 27 percent on a media report that depositors had withdrawn euros1 billion in the week since the state took over. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

(AP) ? The board of directors of Spain's troubled bank, Bankia, says it has agreed to ask for ?19 billion ($23.8 billion) in state funds.

In a statement released late Friday the bank's president, Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri said the recapitalization "reinforced the solvency, liquidity and solidity of the bank."

The decision came on the same day as credit rating agency Standard & Poor'downgraded Bankia and four other Spanish banks to junk status because of uncertainty over restructuring and recapitalization plans.

Trading in Bankia shares were suspended Friday while its board determined how much new aid was needed.

The bank's shares have been whipped about violently in recent weeks on fears it could succumb to the massive losses it has built up in in bad loans in the country's collapsed real estate sector.

Associated Press

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