Rodrigo Rato stood strong during his much-anticipated appearance before Congress. Rato, who was CEO of Bankia from late 2010 until May 2012, gave his version of what happened at Bankia during the years leading to its bankruptcy.
Bankia's former CEO defended the work that happened during the two years and five months that he was at the bank. He even stood by the more questionable decisions such as merging with Bancaja and going public on grounds that the Bank of Spain and the consulting firm Deloitte supported both of them.
We should remember that Bankia discovered a 19-billion euro fund shortage just after Rato left. This shortage came to light in part because of additional cleanup requirements and procedures that the government imposed on Bankia. And Bankia's shortage sparked the banking crisis that we are still struggling to get out of.
