While speaking in front of Congress yesterday, Bank of Spain ex-governor Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez defended the management decisions he made while in charge of the Bank of Spain and avoided taking responsibility for "the Spanish banking crisis." But the Bankia flop, which happened under his direction, is the biggest telltale of the crisis.
Ordóñez pointed the finger at the regimes of José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez. And he didn't forget to criticize current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for letting the markets lose faith in Spain since he took office at the end of 2011.
Far from uttering a humble mea culpa, Ordóñez puffed his chest and talked to members of the house about the savings bank transfer that he was behind, firm transparency and increases to banking provisions and installed capacity.
Wrapping up his speech, he firmly backed the decision to go public with Bankia, which in hindsight was one of the worst financial mistakes in recent memory for Spain.
But the ex-governor didn't have the courage to admit his failure to see the crisis coming and to resist the regional governments' pressure to merge failing savings banks that should have been closed for good. Novagalicia, CatalunyaCaixa and Unnim offer a clear example of how Ordóñez failed to execute his role and ensure stability of the economy.
Ordóñez is bending the truth and making good on Sir Winston Churchill's saying: "Success is the ability to go from one mistake to the next without losing your enthusiasm."
