The second largest Spanish bank BBVA-BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA has launched a public exchange offer on the sixth largest Italian bank BNL, in which it holds 14.7% of the capital. BBVA will proceed with a capital increase with a nominal value of 260.25 million euros with the release of 531.13 million new shares. The Spanish bank one newly released share for five in BNL, valuing the 85% of the capital that it wants to buy at around 6.6 billion euros. The Bank of Italy, which is extremely reluctant, has 30 days to decide whether or not to authorise the operation.