Estimate: Spain Needs $76.3 Billion in Capital to Avoid Downturn

Meanwhile Madrid's been in the throes of anti-austerity protests

Spain's banks would need 59.3 billion euros ($76.3 billion) in extra capital to ride out a serious economic downturn, an independent audit of the country's 14 main banks by consultancy Oliver Wyman showed on Friday.

The worst-case estimate, which does not take into account tax credits or future bank plans to raise their own capital, is based on a scenario of a 6.5 percent contraction in Spain's economy between 2012 and 2014.