The ongoing pain in Spain – the banks must take the blame

 Spanish bank Santander has said its quarterly profits fell by more than 90% after taking provisions for bad property loans in its local market.

Net income fell to 100m Euros (£81m) in the third quarter from 1.8bn euros in the same period last year, it said.

The bank also commented that UK profit fell 21% to 337m Euros in the three months.

So far this year Santander has set aside 3.5bn Euros for provisions for property losses - a problem facing all Spanish banks.

The Spanish government has found itself in financial difficulty since the 2008 global financial crisis caused a big crash in the country's over-heated property market, and many fear that it will need a full bailout on top of the banking loan that has already been agreed.

Santander said that total problematic property assets amounted to 18.5bn Euros.

The jobless total in Spain has now reached a record 25% and Greece will shortly apply for more funding and assistance on its debt programme against this background the Euro woes look set to continue for some considerable time.