Banks have crumpled throughout Europe but the real economy is more or less alright. In Spain, it is the other way round. The economy is in recession, unemployment is soaring and the property market – one of the world’s most elevated – has crashed. Oddly, however, Spanish banks seem to be fine.

This is largely thanks to counter-cyclical provisioning measures imposed by the Bank of Spain, a prudence that has now borne fruit. In the red corner towers Santander, the eurozone’s largest bank by market capitalisation. In the blue corner stands BBVA, Europe’s fourth largest. Yet their robustness is atypical. Half of Spain’s financial system consists of 45 unlisted mutuals owned by local governments, called cajas. They are entirely domestically focused, therefore highly exposed to property, and also – because they cannot raise equity – potentially short of capital.