Supervisors and investors press BBVA to clarify the future of Francisco González

Supervisors and investors press BBVA to clarify the future of Francisco González

The ECB, the Bank of Spain, the Government and the funds urge the entity to close the crisis, whose internal investigation will not obtain immediate conclusions

  The 15 members of the BBVA board of directors who meet in a few hours -the appointments are this Thursday afternoon- will not only have on the table the bank's annual accounts for 2018. They will also deliberate on the future of the president of honor of the corporation and its foundation, Francisco González, after the filtration of the alleged plot of espionage, commissioned to ex-commissioner José Luis Villarejo, when he was president of the group to avoid the disembarkation of other businessmen in the entity more than 15 years ago.

A few days after leaving office, on December 31, revelations of such depth began to take place that the group is in the midst of a corporate crisis that is under increasing pressure from financial supervisors, government agencies , the investment funds themselves internal and external to the firm, and the rest of the stock market agents.

This heterogeneity of fronts redoubled the pressure for the council to act, with the successor in the presidency, Carlos Torres, in front, and the newly appointed CEO, the Turkish Onur Genç, before a 'hot potato' that is marking its first weeks in front of the bank. The degree of this insistence will determine the future of Francisco González, linked to the bank and his own reputation.

Waiting for the council
How that pressure evolves depends on whether there is a way out, and if so, when and how it would occur. Everything is conditioned to the current situation that the council faces when it meets on the afternoon of this Thursday, in a meeting that will not be exactly calm.

The attention calls have increased their intensity as the days have passed at the rate at which the leaks were reproduced. The governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, took advantage of his presence on Monday in the Congress to urge BBVA to carry out "with total depth and as soon as possible" the investigation that the bank has commissioned to clarify the alleged plot. And he said that his goal should be "to try to eliminate, minimize" the risk that this case could imply.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has also spoken at the hand of its vice president, Luis de Guindos. He asked the entity to clarify as quickly as possible the relationship that the bank had with Villarejo. "We have to wait for the conclusions" of the internal investigation, which must be "available as quickly as possible". Also the Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, asked the bank, in general, and the BBVA in particular to contribute to the "good reputation" and described as "serious subject" the contract to the ex-commissioner.

The market "monitors"
Not even the pressure exerted by those who really control the group from inside and outside: the big investment funds. Sources of the sector indicate that some firms would also be urging the council to make a decisive decision and stop in its tracks an image crisis that can even cause a change in the bank's rating, as they admit from S & P, for related reasons. with the reputation. For now, this rating agency "monitors" the effects of the damage that the case may cause.

For now, the actions of BBVA have not been affected by all this controversy. In fact, they accumulate a revaluation of 13% this month. The image is the only damaged vector, although the judicial front could throw an uncertain future. The ex-minister Miguel Sebastián -responsible for the BBVA studies service until 2003- anticipated a demand that has not yet arrived. Neither that of the Manos Limpias association.

The future will depend on what the council determines, whose president faces an unprecedented crisis. Torres already warned in his letter to employees that his priority is to "clarify" the facts and "act with the necessary force" to get out of this corporate labyrinth in which the entity is located.