Bankia shares suspended ahead of rescue details

MADRID (Reuters) - Shares in Spain's fourth-biggest lender Bankia SA were suspended on the Madrid stock exchange on Friday, ahead of an evening announcement when the bank is expected to ask the state for a rescue of more than 15 billion euros ($19 billion). The government is in the process of nationalizing Bankia, which holds some camiseta de España 10 percent of the country's bank deposits, after it was unable to raise enough capital to cover heavy losses from loans to property developers during a building boom that crashed in 2007-2008. Bankia and other banks exposed to the property bust are seen as a major risk for Spain and for the entire euro currency zone, because of concerns that the government will end up having to ask for international aid to prop up lenders. Earlier this week Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told a congressional committee that the state would have to put at least 9 billion euros into Bankia to cover losses on sour loans and repossessed housing. The government has already spent 4.5 billion euros to prop up Bankia and the entire rescue is now seen totaling some 20 billion euros. The figure has risen several times in recent months. Some weeks ago de Cheap NBA Jerseys Guindos pledged that no public money would be put into the banks. Spain will have to go to the markets to raise debt to put into Bankia, at a time when its borrowing costs are high. Spain's country risk, as measured by the spread between benchmark German and Spanish bond yields, jumped as high as 500 basis points in recent weeks. On Friday it had moderated to 462 basis points as investors moved out of German debt to hunt for higher yields. ($1 = 0.7948 euros) (Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by David Holmes)