Spanish financial sector affected by record rate of unpaid loans. The rate of unpaid loans in the Spanish financial sector at the end of 2009 reached a record 5.07%, as opposed to 3.37% at the end of 2008, indicated the Bank of Spain. The highest level ever reached occurred in 1996, with 5.31%. The bursting of the real estate bubble and unemployment reaching 4.3 million, nearly 19% of the working population, explain this result. Both saving banks (5.05%) and banks (5.01%) are affected but those most affected are the consumer lending agencies (10.2%). In total, unsure loans reached a figure of €93.3 billion by the end of last year - 44.5 billion from the saving banks and 40 billion for the banks. This situation had a negative impact on the results of five of the biggest groups: Santander, BBVA, Caja Madrid and Banco Popular, which saw their results fall by 11.3% to 15.6 billion in 2009. Repercussions have hit the medium-sized banks most of all (Sabadell, Banesto, Bankinter, Banco Pastro, Banco Valencia and Banco Guipuzcoano) whose profits fell by 22% to €1.6 billion. The trend was even more pronounced for saving banks, whose profits fell by 34% to €4.4 billion. (I.L.)