Investors have largely rejected an offer by Santander, Spain’s largest bank, to buy back securitised bonds with a face value of €16.5bn, taking up less than 4 per cent of the total.

The lender, Europe’s biggest by market capitalisation, said on Tuesday night it had accepted tenders representing bonds with a face value of €609m. It had offered to repurchase 27 different issues, backed by mortgages, consumer credits and business loans, at discounts as deep as 39 per cent. The cash offer was aimed of capitalising on depressed prices in secondary debt markets and preparing the way for new issuance, according to analysts.