Bolsa de Madrid
After the merger, Bankia was initially owned by the holding company Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA), and the seven banks controlled BFA. The most toxic assets from the banks were transferred to BFA, which obtained €4.5 billion from the Spanish government rescue fund FROB in exchange for preference shares with an annual interest rate of 7.75%, maturing in 2015. In 2011, Bankia offered shares to the public in an IPO. Investment bankers found little interest in the IPO among international institutional investors. The strategy shifted to selling the stock domestically, and largely to customers of the bank itself, with 98% of the initial €3.1 billion raised by domestic sales of shares. The shares of Bankia began trading on the Bolsa de Madrid on 20 July 2011, under the symbol BKIA, and the bank was listed in the IBEX 35.