Ladies and gentlemen, it's very nice to see so many of you here, particularly, I don't know one or two of you are quite busy,

and I think it's a reflection of the fact that you're interested both in the man and the subject.

The subject is Spain and the financial crisis and the man is Professor Karl

Marrero from University of Karls-Thera Madrid. He's a professor of European law and very

distinguished in Spanish European law circles and we're very fortunate to welcome him here

and to hear the benefit of his insider knowledge of what's going on in Spain.

So, floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Catherine, for your hospitality, your generosity and the University of Cambridge

because this is really a great privilege

to share my ideas and my standpoint with all of you.

My lecture will consist on four parts.

The first one is an introduction to let you now some specific features of the financial crisis in Spain,

which has been almost different than in the rest of the world.

The second one is about the adoption of a new banking framework on solvency and financial stability,

which is currently on track.

And the third one, it's about the roadmap for the restructuring of the Spanish financial sector,

and obviously I will finish with some conclusions.

More than 150 years ago, George Tickno, a British travel visiting Spain, wrote some reflections about the idiosyncrasy of the Spanish legal system.

The minister decided to procure a certain amount of money and issued a decree for it.

That on the face and in any other country ought to produce it, but here it will not produce a

there of it. Garay, the Minister of Finance, when he came into office, announced his system

and it was supported by all sorts of decrees and are still nominally enforced and actually

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