Health check

摘要

Over a year has passed since the euro zone's "men in black" descended on Madrid to extend a loan to bail out the country's troubled lenders. The ability to draw money from that pot expires in January; the European Commission has said there is a good chance Spain won't need an extension. How much progress has really been made? A lot. The imf says reform of Spanish banking is nearly complete. Following exhaustive stress tests, banks have been recapitalised using, among other sources of cash, €41.3 billion ($56 billion) out of a possible €100 billion euro-zone pot. A bad bank, Sareb, has been set up to house their toxic property assets.