Unicaja becomes a bank and will head a banking 'league'

MÁLAGA -- At an Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders ratified the transformation: Unicaja became a Banking Foundation on October 30, with assets of €2,500 million, thus putting an end to 130 years of activity as a building society (USA: savings & loan). As soon as it is registered with the Stock Exchange authorities and the paperwork is completed, and the recent acquisition of Banco Ceiss is properly consolidated, it will be split in two and be offered on the Madrid Stock Exchange (La Bolsa): one part is the Fundación Bancaria, which in turn will own 90.8% of Unicaja Banco, which will control the daily banking business as well as its 'social' arm. When all this is done, the bank will become one of largest banks in Spain. The banking business in Spain will consist of two 'leagues',

30,000 illegal homes in Málaga, only 16 demolitions

MÁLAGA – It has been calculated that there some 30,000 illegal homes built in the province. Many of them are on ‘non-buildable’ or ‘rústico’ land, or on river flood courses, and the sides and tops of mountains … Yet only a tiny proportion of them have been demolished, which is what the law mandates (restitution to its original state). This permissiveness is owed principally to the fact that there is no politician willing to assume the electoral costs of an unpopular measure. That, and the sluggish speed of justice in Spain. Of course, it’s Nature that loses out, as usual. The provincial Prosecutor//calculates that there were at least 16 demolitions 2013 as the result of having been built on non-buildable land and therefore considered as an offence against ‘territorial ordination’. This is more than can be said for previous years.