For the green-shoot-minded, last month's albeit record high Spanish bank loan delinquencies was occurring as its first derivative was slowing. Well dash those hopes as this month sees bad loans not only rise to record highs (above 11% for the first time in history) but the pace of this drastic deterioration accelerated at the fastest pace since June. We are sure somewhere a Spanish finance minister is eschewing the 2nd or 3rd derivative as an indication that the worst is over but reality is that as FROB proudly notes the number of banks who have invested in its bad bank - in a strange and twistedly ironic reacharound whereby the bad banks themselves (all domestic, no foreign, Santander 16% stake!) are buying up the assets of the nation's bad banks - the sheer size and scale of this level of bad loan and deterioration (double in two years) is far beyond anything the sovereign's bad bank is prepared for. Of course, none of that matters as Draghi's magical OMT remains the ultimate backstop to any reality emerging. Spain - getting worse, faster.
