MADRID, Oct 8: Spain’s new 30-billion-euro bank rescue fund is aimed at acquiring top-rated mortgages in exchange for injecting essential liquidity into the credit market, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

The fund will “essentially” be used to take over mortgages, but only those with the best “AAA” ratings, a spokeswoman for the economy ministry said, confirming information in the newspaper El Pais.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced the temporary fund on Tuesday, saying it could be extended to 50 billion euros ($68 billion) if necessary.

But he said that unlike the bailout in the United States, the fund would not be used to buy “toxic” assets, such as the subprime loans that have burdened financial institutions.

The aim of the fund is similar to that of recent cash injections by the European Central

Bank, the newspaper Expansion noted.

But, unlike the ECB loans, which are short term and for up to six months, those acquired by the Spanish fund will be from three to five years, giving the banks more reassurance, El Pais said—AFP