European Central Bank Orders Rescue of Spain's Banco Popular

The European Central Bank said Wednesday that is had adopted a so-called "resolution decision" on the struggling Spanish lender Banco Popular Espanol SA (BPESY) , and order the transfer of all of its shares and capital to Banco Santander SA (SAN) - Get Report  for the cost of €1.

"Due to its recent stressed liquidity situation, the ECB had decided that Banco Popular was "failing or likely to fail"," the ECB said in a statement, and notified the Single Resolution Board (SRB) Tuesday. The combination will create the biggest bank in Spain and Portugal, with around 21 million combined customers.

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.