Spain drawing up controls on banks

Spain is drawing up legislation that will allow the country’s central bank to intervene earlier when a lender falls into trouble as well as giving its bank rescue fund powers to shut them down if they fail to come up with survival plans, an Economy Ministry spokeswoman has said.

The measures are designed to avoid a repeat of the problems like that of Bankia, the leading bank that revealed it needed €19bn euro to shore up its balance sheet only after it was nationalised in May.