In what is becoming a monthly parabolic charting tradition, it is again time to update the Spanish bad loan total: in September, Spanish loans that fell into arrears increased by €3.5 billion from August [3], reaching €182.2 billion in September. This is 10.71% of the total Spanish bank loans of €1.7 trillion, and an increase from 10.5% in the prior month. At the same time, new bank loans expanded 0.2% in September and dropped 4.9% from a year ago, the Bank of Spain said. Deposits rose 1.4% from the previous month and declined 7.3% from a year earlier. Putting the bad loan number in context, it is nearly double the €100 billion that the Spanish banks will receive as part of the bank bailout plan disclosed in July, and well above the "only" €40 billion that Spain promises it will need to actually fund bank capital shortfalls. Putting it into further context, as a percentage of GDP, it would be the equivalent of $2.8 trillion in US loans going bad. Naturally, just like with any "forecast" involving Greece, the final bailout (of both Spain's banks, and the sovereign) will be orders of magnitude higher, but for now everyone is forgiven to stick their head in the sand for at least a few more days/weeks.
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