Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA) on Wednesday agreed to take over nationalized Spanish lender Unnim in the first of several assisted banking deals planned this year by the country's central bank.

The Bank of Spain said in a statement that the Spanish deposit insurance fund will assume losses at Unnim of EUR953 million ahead of the transfer of ownership to BBVA, Spain's second-biggest bank by assets.

BBVA will purchase Unnim for EUR1.

Unnim, the result of a merger in 2010 of three small savings banks into a EUR30 billion lender, was taken over in September last year by the central bank after it failed to meet new, higher minimum-capital requirements. Like many of their peers, the three Catalonia-based savings banks had lent aggressively to real-estate developers through the country's building boom, a strategy that backfired when the bubble burst four years ago.

As part of the deal, the deposit insurance fund will assume 80% of any future losses on a portfolio of assets on Unnim's balance sheet.

BBVA beat out mid-sized lender Banco Popular Espanol SA (POP.MC), savings bank Ibercaja and Banco Santander SA (STD) in the auction.

All four banks had filed binding offers for Unnim last month.

-By Christopher Bjork, Dow Jones Newswires; +34 91395 8123; christopher.bjork@dowjones.com

BBVA Bilbao Vizcaya Arge... (NYSE:BBVA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024 Click Here for more BBVA Bilbao Vizcaya Arge... Charts.
BBVA Bilbao Vizcaya Arge... (NYSE:BBVA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024 Click Here for more BBVA Bilbao Vizcaya Arge... Charts.