The major banks in Spain are Banco de Santander, which is sponsoring Ferrari Formula 1 team in fact, and BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) mainly but, we have also what we call, Cajas de Ahorros, which could be translated as Savings Banks which were created many years ago as a kind of bank with social purposes. In fact this "Cajas de Ahorros" must invest in social actions in order to achieve their "caja de ahorros" status.
Last month dued to a European Union along with a Bank of Spain directives, these saving banks were requested to achieve a kind of protective system for the consumers in order to upfront some cash guarantees and therefore avoid any difficulties related to risks management.

If you are interested there is much information on this aspect..

In Spain many people usually buy a house instead of renting it. Then many house owners, usually have a 30 years mortgage to accomplish for.

As a result of the economic crisis, many people have lost their jobs, the unemployement rate is about 20% which is a huge figure compared to other countries of European Community. So right now people, who are unable to pay monthly rates to cover the yearly mortgage cuota, the bank is requesting them their house ownership, in fact the bank is the owner for their next 30 years..so if they fail to pay, the bank gets their houses.

So banks, nowadays have become Real State Agents since are owning may houses. Even this week there is a kind of Expo on houses organized by banks in order to get cash out of it...seems funny but, it is real bad for young people who hardly can face monthly loan payments.

Right, there is an insurance deposit and guarantee system if any bank faces bankrupcy. In fact this happened last summer with a savings bank "Caja Castilla-La Mancha".