BRUSSELS (AFP) -- Struggling Spanish banks will not get much needed cash directly from Europe‘s new bailout fund until next year, a senior European official said Friday.
A European Union summit last month agreed that the European Stability Mechanism would recapitalize banks directly, rather than give funds to the government concerned and so weigh down the state accounts with new debt.
Spain, under pressure on financial markets as its borrowing costs reach dangerously high levels, had held out for the move to help stabilize the banking system without making Madrid’s sovereign debt burden even worse.
The EMS aid is conditional, however, on setting up a European bank regulatory and resolution system -- also agreed at the summit -- which the official said would "not occur before the first half of 2013."
The EMS, in place officially from July 1, is not yet operational but should be within the next few months, added the official, who asked not to be named.
In the meantime, aid for Spanish banks would have to take the form of a loan by the temporary European Financial Stability Facility to the Spanish public Fund For Orderly Bank Restructuring.
Once the ESM is up and running it can take over the lending, but it will also have to go via the FROB initially.
Only in a third phase will funds be able to bypass public accounts and reach the Spanish banks directly.
"The first Spanish banks will need to be recapitalized by the end of this year, and many others in the spring of next year," the EU official noted.
Eurozone officials agreed on an overall sum of 100 billion euros to be prepared for any event, because the final amount needed will depend on stress tests that "are being undertaken bank by bank," he added.
The total sum will thus only be known once the entire process has been completed, and not when a memorandum of understanding on aid to Spain is signed.
Eurozone finance ministers who are to meet on Monday in Brussels will aim "to reach a political understanding" on the MOU ahead of a formal acceptance later this month, if possible.
There would "hopefully (be) a MOU in July," the EU official said, adding that ministers could hold a telephone conference to wrap up the last details, if necessary.
