In Spain, Technology Charts 'Bad Bank' Path

While market trends are by definition fleeting, financial institutions—and banks, especially—are usually built to last and agile enough to survive; the world’s oldest, Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has been around since 1472. Yet, perhaps in a sign of the times, even that Tuscan institution—the “mount of piety,” as it translates into English—is under threat of collapse because of shareholder revolt.

Indeed, the more relevant question today has less to do with whether such regional