CAM bosses ‘less prudent’

DEBATE still rages over nationalised and subsequently taken-over CAM bank.  Last week Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordoñez became the first ex-governor of the Bank of Spain to address a regional parliament. 

CAM directors were “less professional and less prudent” than others, he told an investigating parliamentary committee in Valencia. So too, he hinted, was the autonomous region in naming directors and monitoring their performance.

CAM was not especially ill-treated, insisted Fernandez Ordoñez, but behaved differently from other savings banks. These banks were a major problem when restructuring a system that bore no resemblance to the pre-bubble situation, he explained.  

Some savings banks in the Basque region, Cataluña, Asturias and Aragon succeeded, said the ex-governor. “Others did not take advantage when thrown a lifebelt,” he claimed.

He could not answer specific questions, Fernandez Ordoñez said, but revealed that between 2008 and late 2010, the Bank of Spain carried out six inspections at CAM.  

Banks normally correct failings without causing social alarm.  “Others do not,” he added. CAM directors’ and executives’ remuneration was “scandalous,” he said but the national supervisor cannot veto appointments.  “That’s the responsibility of the regional government.”