Banco Popular had one night — Santander bought it for €1

Banco Popular Español, one of Spain's oldest lenders, had carried heavy non-performing assets since the property crash, and its liquidity was deteriorating fast. On 3 June 2017 the Single Resolution Board took a decision on marketing the bank; three days later, on 6 June, the European Central Bank determined that the bank was failing or likely to fail, citing 'the significant deterioration of the liquidity situation of the bank in recent days' and concluding it would soon be unable to pay its debts as they fell due.

The resolution took one night. On 7 June 2017 the SRB's resolution scheme entered into force using the sale-of-business tool: all shares and capital instruments of Banco Popular were transferred to Banco Santander for a price of €1, with the European Commission endorsing the scheme. The authorities presented the operation as proof the new regime worked — deposits protected, no public funds used, no bailout of the kind Spain had needed earlier in the decade.

The bill went to the owners and the junior creditors. Santander set aside €7.9 billion against Popular's non-performing assets and raised €7 billion in a rights issue to absorb the purchase; its own shares fell 2.5% on the announcement. Shareholders and capital-instrument holders were wiped out, and when former investors sought redress, the SRB's final decision of 17 March 2020 confirmed that no compensation was due — insolvency, it found, would have been more costly.