Among the measures aimed at boosting the financing of companies and citizens by credit institutions, Article 1 of Royal Decree-Law 7/2008 of 13 October 2008, of urgent measures in economic and financial matters in The Commission has approved the granting of State aid to certain new financing operations carried out by the credit institutions resident in Spain. In accordance with paragraph 6 of this Article, a maximum amount of EUR 100 billion may be granted in 2008.

Consequently, this rule is intended to develop the provisions of the aforementioned Royal Decree-Law, in order to establish certain fundamental aspects of the system of granting guarantees to credit institutions. In particular, it is necessary to specify the characteristics of the guarantees to be granted, the requirements to be met by the beneficiary entities and the operations to be approved and the different procedures to be followed for the granting of guarantees.

The standard consists of seven articles, one additional provision, one repealing provision and three endings and one annex. Articles 1 to 4 clarify the essential characteristics of the guarantees to be granted, of the beneficiaries and of the operations to be guaranteed, while Articles 5 to 7 define the procedures to be followed for the granting of the endorsements.

As for the characteristics of the endorsements, the waiver of the benefit of excision, its irrevocability and the unconditional character of the guarantee once realized and admitted to negotiation the corresponding emissions, must be emphasized. values. On the other hand, the State guarantee may be requested by credit institutions, by consolidable groups or groups of credit institutions, provided that they have a significant activity, which is specific to the requirement that the institution have a Significant participation in the granting of credit to businesses and consumers in Spain.

Also, the requirements to which the financing operations can be secured are specified. Among them, the interest rate is allowed to be fixed or variable and the amount of the issue is required not to be less than EUR 10 million.

On the other hand, the payment of a commission that will become a state aid is demanded. The characteristics of these commissions are set out in the Annex to this order.

With regard to the description of the procedures necessary for the granting of the guarantee, the phases foreseen to the effect are as follows: first, the entity must submit the corresponding application according to the model determined by the Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy. The exact amount of the requested endorsement must be collected in the application. The guarantee shall be granted to each entity in proportion to the participation of the entity in the total of the " Credit. Other resident sectors " reflected in the Statistical Bulletin of the Banco de España, thus fulfilling the ultimate purpose of the standard that is to allow credit flows to reach families and businesses normally. Once the endorsement has been granted, the entities will have to carry out the specific emissions within the specified time limits.

Because of the important economic commitment assumed with the implementation of this measure, the general interest is safeguarded as the State in its condition of guarantor holds each and every one of the rights recognized by the The law applicable to the case of the execution of the guarantee, in addition, the obligation to inform the Bank of Spain of that circumstance is imposed in the exclusive additional provision to the Directorate General of the Treasury and Financial Policy. take some of the measures contained, inter alia, in Law No 26/88 of 29 of July, on Discipline and Intervention of Credit Entities.

It should be noted that in the preparation of this rule, the content of the Communication of the European Commission of 13 October 2008 has been taken into account, on the subject of the State aid rules for measures addressed to the Member States. financial institutions in the context of the current global financial crisis. In this sense, according to the aforementioned Communication, the granting of endorsements from the present scheme is presented with limited temporary validity. Thus the Royal Decree-Law 7/2008, of October 13, of urgent measures in economic-financial matter in relation to the plan of concerted action of the Countries of the Euro Zone establishes that, in any case, the deadline for the granting of guarantees shall end on 31 December 2009. In addition, the mechanism may be revised if the market conditions so require or if it is determined in a coordinated manner within the financial coordination mechanisms to be established in the European Union. In any event, it shall be assessed, within six months of the granting of the endorsements, if the reasons for the adoption of this system of State guarantees remain and if, consequently, the maintenance of the guarantee is necessary or their modification.

This order is dictated by the ratings provided for in Article 1.4 and in the final provision of Royal Decree-Law 7/2008 of 13 October 2008, of urgent measures in economic and financial matters in relation to the with the plan of concerted action of the Countries of the Euro Zone.

In its virtue, and according to the State Council,

D I S P O N G O:

Article 1. Characteristics of the endorsement.

State endorsement will be granted in the following terms:

(a) Once the provisions of Article 7.2 of this order have been complied with, the endorsements shall be deemed to be irrevocable and unconditional.

(b) The endorsements shall be granted with the waiver of the excision benefit set out in Article 1,830 of the Civil Code.

(c) The guarantee shall guarantee, exclusively, the principal of the credit as well as the ordinary interest. In the case of issues made in foreign currency, the guarantee shall not cover the exchange rate risk which, in any case, shall be on behalf of the issuer.

(d) Each endorsement shall be payable by the appropriate commission as set out in the Annex to this order.

(e) The obligations assumed under the guarantee shall be payable on the due date of the guaranteed obligation including as such the principal of the issue and its ordinary interests, without the possibility of requiring the payment to the guarantor at a time prior to that.

(f) The endorsement shall be without effect if the characteristics of the approved financing operations are modified, unless the consent and prior written consent of the guarantor is measured.

Article 2. Entities that can request the endorsement.

1. In accordance with the provisions of Article 1.1 of Royal Decree-Law 7/2008 of 13 October 2008, urgent measures in economic and financial matters relating to the concerted action plan of the Countries of the Euro Zone, may request endorsements:

a) Credit institutions.

b) Consolidated groups of credit institutions.

c) Credit entity pools.

2. Credit institutions shall meet the following requirements:

a) Being a credit institution with registered office in Spain

b) Have a quota of at least one per thousand of the total under heading " 2.4. Loans and loans. Other sectors " corresponding to Spanish residents of the State of the State of the Bank of Spain.

c) Haber issued in Spain during the five years immediately prior to the date of entry into force of Royal Decree-Law 7/2008 of 13 October, of urgent measures in economic and financial matters in relation to the plan of concerted action by the countries of the euro area similar to those which may be the subject of this guarantee.

3. Each consolidated group of credit institutions shall make a single application. It shall be sufficient for the requirement laid down in point (a) of the previous paragraph to be met by a single entity. Similarly, the requirement in point (c) of the previous paragraph shall be deemed to be fulfilled where one of the group's entities is satisfied. The requesting entity shall be the deposit entity that, if applicable, has the highest rating of among those that are part of the group. In any event, the applicant entity shall comply with the requirement set out in point (a) of the previous paragraph. Within each consolidated group, the State guarantee shall be granted, where applicable, to the transactions issued by that applicant entity. The requirement referred to in point (b) of the preceding paragraph is required at the level of the group and, for the purposes of calculating the said joint quota, only the amount corresponding to the credit institutions integrated in that quota shall be included. have their registered office in Spain.

Exceptionally, a credit institution belonging to a consolidated group that complies with the provisions of points (a) and (c) of the previous paragraph, may make a separate application from the group to which it belongs, provided that, in relation to the requirement laid down in point (b) of the previous paragraph, the quota of that entity shall be at least 5 per 1000.

4. Credit institutions with registered offices in Spain which have transferred the management of their liquidity in the interbank market in a systematic manner to another entity with which they have a contractual netting agreement, may group the shares of all they are in the entity that is assigned the management. The grouping thus formed shall comply with the requirements set out in paragraph 2 (b) and (c) of this Article. For such purposes, the requirement laid down in paragraph 1 (b) shall be deemed to be required at the level of the grouping. As regards the requirement referred to in point (c) of that paragraph, it shall be sufficient to comply with one of the entities forming part of the group. It shall be the entity carrying the management which may make the request for endorsement. The endorsement thus requested shall be granted in favour exclusively of that applicant entity, which shall be the sole authority to carry out the guaranteed emissions.

5. Credit institutions, consolidable groups and groups which, in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraphs, may apply for the State guarantee, may accrue to their quota that of another credit institution which does not meet the requirements referred to in points (b) or (c) of paragraph 2, provided that there is a prior agreement between them.

Article 3. Operations that may be guaranteed.

Those operations consisting of emissions, carried out in Spain, of promissory notes, bonds and bonds, shall be guaranteed to meet the following requirements:

a) Type of operations: They may consist of individual operations or emission programs.

(b) Value type: It shall be non-subordinated and unsecured debt securities with other types of collateral. No interbank deposits shall be guaranteed.

(c) Term of maturity: The maturity period shall be between three months and three years following its issuance. Exceptionally, the Minister of Economy and Finance will be able to guarantee operations with a maturity of up to five years, following the Bank of Spain's report.

d) Profitability: The interest rate may be fixed or variable. The effective interest rate shall be within the range of emission market returns and issuers of similar characteristics and shall be consistent with previous transactions of the same issuer. In addition, in the case of a variable interest rate, the reference rate should be broad-based and used in the financial markets.

e) Structure of guaranteed operations: Depreciation shall be made in a single payment. In addition, the guaranteed emissions shall not incorporate options, or any other derivative financial instruments, or any other element that makes it difficult to assess the risk assumed by the guarantor.

(f) Minimum amount: The amount of each issue shall not be less than EUR 10 million, calculated as the nominal value of the issue.

g) Admission to trading: Securities should be admitted to trading on official Spanish secondary markets.

Article 4. Commissions.

1. In accordance with the provisions of Article 1.7 of Royal Decree-Law 7/2008 of 13 October 2008, urgent measures in economic and financial matters relating to the concerted action plan of the countries of the Euro Zone and Article 117 of the Treaty Law 47/2003, of 26 November, General Budget, the endorsements granted by the State shall bear, in favour of it, the commissions detailed in the Annex of this order.

2. The fees shall be payable, for each transaction, at the time of issue.

3. The Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy shall liquidate the relevant committees and indicate the terms in which such commissions shall be made effective, with the payment of the commission being credited by the institution endorsed before the issue.

4. The Annex to this order may be amended by resolution of the Directorate-General for the Treasury and Financial Policy in order to adapt it to the measures taken in the economic and financial field in the European Union in relation to the concerted action plan. of the countries of the euro area.

Article 5. Request for endorsements.

1. The entities that want to obtain the State guarantee must submit their application to the General Directorate of the Treasury and Financial Policy, which will be responsible for processing them, according to the model that the General Directorate will determine.

Applications for endorsements from the General Budget of the State for 2008 must be submitted by 3 December 2008. The deadline for submitting applications for endorsements from the General Budget of the State for 2009 shall be established by resolution of the Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy.

2. Except in the exceptional case referred to in the second paragraph of Article 2.3, no more than one application may be submitted by credit institution, consolidable group or group.

3. Applications shall be made on the following:

(a) The identifying data of the entity submitting the application, expressly stating, where applicable, whether the application is submitted on behalf of a consolidable group or a group.

b) The amount of the requested endorsement. This amount shall be expressed in millions of euro and shall not be considered as an endorsement, the total amount of which per entity, consolidable group or pool of credit institutions is less than EUR 100 million.

c) The market share of the entity, consolidable group or pool. This fee is the amount declared by the institution under the heading ' 2.4. Loans and loans. Other sectors " corresponding to the Spanish residents of the State of the State of the Bank of Spain, referred to in September 2008. In the case of consolidable groups or groupings, the total quota of the group shall be indicated, and the individual shares of each of the entities that make up the group shall be further detailed.

d) The details of what was issued in Spain during the five years immediately prior to the date of entry into force of Royal Decree-Law 7/2008 for each of the types of securities that may be the subject of this guarantee. For each type of value, the details of the emissions made available shall be reported by providing a listing containing all the emissions, specifying for each of them: their ISIN code, the amount issued, the time limit and the resulting interest rate each issue.

4. The Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy may request any clarification it deems appropriate on the information submitted by each entity, group or group, as well as any additional information it makes appropriate.

Article 6. Criteria for the granting of endorsements.

The Minister of Economy and Finance will allocate the maximum amount that can be guaranteed to each individual credit institution, and to the representatives of consolidable groups and groups in direct proportion to the the market for each credit institution, group or group under the heading ' 2.4. Loans and loans. Other sectors " corresponding to Spanish residents of the State of the State of the Bank of Spain and the amount of the State of the State of the Bank of Spain shall be the maximum of the amount to be applied to the maximum amount of the guarantees to be granted in each financial year.

However, in accordance with Article 118 of Law 47/2003 of 26 November, General Budget, the amount to be guaranteed as a result of applying the criterion set out in the preceding paragraph may be limited to minimise the risk of execution of the endorsements.

The Minister of Economy and Finance may ask the Bank of Spain for reports it deems appropriate for the purposes of assessing compliance with the criteria set out in this article.

Article 7. Granting of endorsements.

1. The order of the Minister of Economy and Finance to grant the guarantee to each entity, group or group shall be duly notified to each person concerned. The budget for the financial year 2008 shall be granted before 31 December 2008.

2. The endorsement thus granted may guarantee one or more emissions. Consequently, the effectiveness of the guarantee granted will be conditional upon compliance with the following procedures:

(a) The issuing entity shall communicate to the General Directorate of the Treasury and Financial Policy the details of the specific issue to be made.

b) The Treasury and Financial Policy Directorate-General will examine the details of such issuance and, if the necessary requirements are met for the issuance to be eligible for State endorsement in the terms set out in the the issuing order shall inform the issuing institution together with the settlement of the commission, as set out in Article 4, so that, after crediting its revenue, it shall carry out the issue.

c) Once the issue has been issued, the issuing entity will provide the details of the issue to the Directorate General of the Treasury and Financial Policy, Banco de España and the National Securities and Exchange Commission. request the admission to trading of the issue in an official Spanish secondary market.

(d) The Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy shall verify that the characteristics of the emission actually carried out are in accordance with those reported.

e) The National Securities Market Commission shall communicate to the General Directorate of the Treasury and Financial Policy the effective admission to trading of the securities issued.

3. The emissions endorsed by the General Budget of the State for 2008 shall be carried out by 1 July 2009. The deadline for issuing the emissions from the 2009 General State Budget will be established by resolution of the Directorate General of the Treasury and Financial Policy.

4. The endorsement granted by the grant order shall bind the State and shall be fully effective for each particular operation endorsed.

Single additional disposition. Communication to the Banco de España in case of execution of the guarantee.

In the event of the execution of the guarantee, the Directorate General of the Treasury and Financial Policy will communicate that circumstance to the Banco de España in case any of the measures contained, among other provisions, in the Law 26/1988, July 29, on Discipline and Intervention of Credit Entities.

Single repeal provision. Regulatory repeal.

All provisions of equal or lower rank shall be repealed as set out in this Ministerial Order.

Final disposition first. Extra rules.

The procedure for the granting of guarantees will be governed, as not provided for by the rules established in the Royal Decree-Law 7/2008, of 13 October, of urgent measures in economic and financial matters in relation to the plan of concerted action by the Countries of the Euro Zone and in this order, by Law 30/1992, of 26 November, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure and by Law 47/2003, of 26 November, General Budget.

Final disposition second. Enablement.

The Director-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy is hereby authorized to make any decisions necessary for the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this order.

Final disposition third. Entry into force.

This order will take effect on the day of its publication in the "Official State Gazette".

Madrid, November 21, 2008. -Deputy Prime Minister of the Government and Minister of Economy and Finance, Pedro Solbes Mira.

ANNEX

endorsement commissions

1. The emissions due less than or equal to one year shall be paid by a commission of 0.50% per year, calculated on the nominal issued.

2. The emissions with a maturity of more than one year shall bear a fee to be calculated, in accordance with the following rules, on the nominal issued.

(a) For issuers for which there are representative data of Credit default swaps (CDS), the total fee to be charged shall be the sum of:

i) a flat rate of 0.50% per year and

ii) a rate based on the prices of the CDS, which will be the lowest number between:

the median price of your 5-year CDS calculated in the period from 1 January 2007 to 31 August 2008 and

the median price of CDS to 5 years, over the same period, for banks having their same rating category (double A or simple A). The median for double-entities A is 0.365% per year. And the median for simple entities A is 0.448% per year

b) For issuers for which no CDS data exist or are not representative, but have rating, the total commission to be charged will be the sum of:

i) a flat rate of 0.50% per year and

(ii) a tariff that will be the median of the prices of the CDS to 5 years, during the period between 1 January 2007 and 31 August 2008, for banks having their same rating category (double A or simple A). The median for double-entities A is 0.365% per year. And the median for simple entities A is 0.448% per year

c) For other issuers the total fee to be charged shall be the sum of:

i) a flat rate of 0.50% per year and

(ii) a tariff that will be the median of the prices of the CDS to 5 years, during the period between 1 January 2007 and 31 August 2008, for the banks that have the category of simple rating A, which is 0.448% per year

iii) an additional rate of 0.10% per year.