Ex-director general for the Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, María Amorós, promoted her brother within the bank. With hardly eight months directing the institution, Amorós has become the epitome of all that has gone wrong with the savings banks.
Not only has she worried more about padding her future with a scandalous pension plan, she has also shown nepotism. She is not entirely at fault. Some of the responsibility belongs to the previous director general, Roberto López Abad, who Amorós supported as second-in-command for ten years. He left the lender with a luxurious retirement package.
Then there is president Modesto Crespo, who signed the contract protecting Amorós, and the advisory committee, which should have scrutinized all decisions. Even the Bank of Spain is culpable given that it just performed an intense inspection of the Cam and had to investigate exorbitant manager pay but said nothing because it customary in the industry. In fact, a similar case has already been seen in the nationalized lender NovaCaixaGalicia. Its old managers attempted to earn 20 million euros.
Not to mention that the fact that lenders who have received public aid are paying multi-million bonuses to managers or that low-level employees are being fired or seeing their salaries cut by 10%. Of course, the responsibility originates in regional government politicians that the savings banks leverage as sources of financing and power. Their lives will be a lot poorer if they do not have a savings bank to stick their hands in.
