Spain’s banks had 155.84bn euros (£122bn) of loans on their books in May that are at risk of not being repaid, the highest since 1994, according to the Banco de España, meaning that levels of debt are now running at around 9% of all loans.
On top of that, the total amount of loans issued by banks is now at historic lows: Spanish banks authorised just 1,74 billion euros of loans in May, a 3.33% fall year on year.
The Bank of Spain has warned that default levels are likely to keep on increasing, at least until the end of the year.