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Spain's "bad bank" optimistic despite losses in 2014

Xinhua, April 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Society for the Management for the Assets Proceeding from the Bank Restructuring (SAREB) registered losses of 585 million euros (628.26 million U.S. dollars) in 2014, it was confirmed on Tuesday.

Sareb, the so-called "bad bank," was created to take on the toxic assets which resulted from the restructuring of the banking sector in Spain following the collapse of the housing market during the economic crisis in 2008.

Sareb's president Jaime Echegoyen said the bank's losses in 2014 were two times that of 2013, when the bank lost 260.53 million euros.

Echegoyen said the reason behind the 2014 losses was a consolidation which the bank had carried out after consulting the Bank of Spain.

Sareb was "quite close to earning money," he said, producing figures which show that the slow recovery of the housing market have been a factor behind the bank being able to sell around 24,000 items of real estate during the past two years.

This allowed it to earn around 9 billion euros, cancel 5.7 billion euros of debt and pay 2.4 billion euros in interest.

Meanwhile, 2014 saw the "bad bank" receive an income of 5.1 billion euros, 23 percent up on 2013, with 3.12 billion euros coming from loan management.( 1 euro = 1.07 U.S. dollars) Endit