Spain: Caja de Ahorros Castilla-La Mancha Capital Injection, 2009

Caja de Ahorros Castilla-La Mancha (CCM) was a small Spanish savings bank with just 1% market share in deposits and loans. Following years of rapid credit expansion in the real estate sector and reliance on wholesale funding markets to carry out its operations between 2000 and 2008, CCM found itself on the brink of insolvency in early 2009, with a Tier 1 capital ratio of just 1.3%, compared with the 8% regulators required. The authorities placed the bank under administration in 2009. Consequently, the Spanish Savings Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund (Fondo de Garantia de Depositos de Ahorros, or FGD) agreed to provide a EUR 1.3 billion capital injection on April 27, 2009, in the form of preference shares to shore up the bank's Tier 1 capital ratio. This injection took place on May 4, 2009. The total cost to the FGD for intervening in CCM amounted to EUR 4.2 billion, including a prepaid asset guarantee and liquidity line; it ultimately recovered just EUR 174 million of that sum. The downfall of CCM and the eventual policy response left a negative impression that paved the way for the creation of the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (Fondo de Restructuracion Ordenada Bancaria, or FROB).