More Venezuelan private banks targeted - Chavez

* Chavez renews bank nationalization threat

* Says government has its eye on a group of banks

* Benchmark bond falls by most in three months (Adds analyst, brokerage raids, market reaction)

By Walker Simon

CARACAS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday his government may target more banks for state intervention, sparking investor jitters two days after his government shut four private banks.

Venezuelan benchmark bonds fell by the most in three months, the cost to insure Venezuelan debt shot to its highest since July, and the bolivar weakened to about 5.80 to the dollar from 5.50 in the parallel non-official currency market.

"There is anxiety in the market .... There is a lot of demand for dollars," said Flavio Fasano, president of the local financial firm Financial Markets.

On Monday, authorities closed the banks owned by a wealthy businessman, Ricardo Fernandez Barruecos, who has close ties to the government, citing internal irregularities. [ID:nN30440361]

The four banks accounted for just 6 percent of the South American nation's deposits, and their administration was taken over by the government on Nov. 20 for violations of solvency regulations and unexplained capital increases.

The closure of Banco Confederado, Banco Canarias, Banco Provivienda and bolivar Banco brought hundreds of worried depositors onto the streets, and sparked talk that more banks may also be closed or taken over by the state.

Reviving memories of a 1994 financial crisis that wiped out half of Venezuela's banks, opposition TV stations have been running stories of stranded depositors, though the government says it is protecting those affected by this week's closures.

"We have our radar switched on to another group of banks," Chavez said in a speech, without giving more details.

"Rest assured that if I was forced to intervene in all the private Venezuelan banking (system), I will do that."

BROKERAGE HOUSES RAIDED

Venezuela's benchmark global bond due in 2027 VENGLB27=RR, one of the most widely traded emerging market bonds, closed 2.687 points lower to a bid of 69.563 on Wednesday, for a yield of 13.903 percent.

It was the biggest one-day percentage fall in the price of the bond since Aug. 26. The bond's yield was its highest closing rate since July 31.

The cost to insure Venezuela's debt annually against default climbed to about 27 percent of face value on Wednesday compared with about 25 percent on Tuesday, according to data from Markit on benchmark five-year credit default swaps VEGV5YUSAC=MP, the highest level since the end of July.

The action on the four banks raised pressure on other firms already hit by recession, said Goldman Sachs analyst Alberto Ramos. "Depositors remain agitated .... There are also reports that a number of brokerage houses are experiencing some distress."

The Venezuelan Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday that its agents raided the Interbursa brokerage on Tuesday and the U21 brokerage last Wednesday as part of the probe into the four banks which were taken over.

Chavez said if it turned out Venezuela's wealthy elite was behind telephone calls and Internet messages aimed at sparking a bank run, then it would backfire against them, and the "private banking system would fall."

Critics blame Chavez allies, whom they brand "Bolibourgeoisie" after Chavez's idol and independence hero Simon Bolivar, for milking and mismanaging some banks.

Fernandez Barruecos, the four banks' jailed owner, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted for crimes related to the banks' operations, the Prosecutor's Office said last week.

"Fernandez Barruecos has fallen from grace after using his privileged position for self-enrichment by illegally using depositors' money in financial institutions he had bought over the last year and lending it to his own businesses," wrote Eurasia Group analyst Patrick Esteruelas.

"The government has likely intervened (in) these (four) financial institutions ... as a result of an internal power struggle and clumsy settlement of accounts," he added.

Chavez said the old guard wealthy elite were the real "mafia" who were fanning fears in the financial sector.

"I blame all the oligarchy for causing the problems of capitalism, corruption and a barrage of attacks that try to generate (bank) runs," he said.

On Sunday, Chavez, a socialist, said he would not hesitate to nationalize any private banks failing to sufficiently help national development and lend to the poor. [ID:nN29403303]

In power for a decade, Chavez has nationalized broad swathes of the economy since 2007, including Venezuela's biggest telephone and electricity companies, as well as $30 billion in projects to extract crude from tar-like deposits.

The only major private bank, foreign or Venezuelan, to fall into state hands under Chavez was Spain's Banco Santander unit Banco de Venezuela, sold in July for $1.05 billion. (See [ID:nN02425746] for a factbox on Venezuelan banks and [ID:nN01391789] for a Q. and A. on the nation's recession ) (Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Eyanir Chinea and Patricia Rondon in Caracas and Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Richard Chang) ((walker.simon@thomsonreuters.com; +58-212-277-2700; Reuters Messaging: walker.simon.reuters.com@reuters.net))