It has been a key issue for the resolution of the EU debt crisis for the past month the question is how big a hole has been made by Spanish banks. On Thursday, the Deputy Governor of Spain Bank finally released an audit report made by independent auditors of the country's struggling financial sector.

The audits of Spain's lenders, carried out by consultancies Roland Berger and Oliver Wyman, covered 14 banking groups that account for 90 percent of the sector in Spain.

Both companies came up with similar numbers and the overall figures were lower than some estimates of the banking sector's recapitalization needs.

According to the report, Spain's troubled banks could need as much as 62 billion euros in new capital to protect themselves from economic shocks.

For the worst-case scenario - a fall in gross domestic product of 6.5 percent over the period 2012-2014 - most of the banks are deemed to be in a "comfortable" position.

This is far below the $100 billion euros bailout loan offered by eurozone finance ministers two weeks ago, but is higher than the minimum amount offered by the IMF.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis De Guindos said,"I think that the data will be very helpful to grasp what the real situation is and it will allow us to eliminate the uncertainties that exist over Spain's banking sector. From there, from there, we will see what the design of the whole process of the financial assistance could be. We have already started working with the Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund."

Being the eurozone's fourth-largest economy, a Spain bailout would seriously hit the bloc's finances.

The release of the audits will probably not eliminate market nervousness about Spain because more thorough audits of the nation's banks are now being conducted and those results are not expected until September.

Spanish economy minister Luis de Guindos said the government will officially make application for a bailout loan from the 17 euro countries, with efforts to get better financing and repayment conditions.

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