Yesterday it was agreed that investors owning preferential shares in NovaGalicia and CatalunyaBank would only receive just 68% of the value of their investment accounts -- the same rate that Bankia preferential shareholders received.
The investors want to know who to hold responsible for the huge financial setback they have suffered. Investors feel like they were deceived, and in many cases they were. Both the Bank of Spain and the CNMV knew that the shares were not as secure as advertised and allowed the savings banks to sell them to clients.
The offering was conceived as a way to come up with much-needed market share when the savings banks realized they were short on cash. Now the Audiencia Nacional, Spain's highest court, has agreed to hear a lawsuit between Union, Progress and Democracy and six people who were responsible for the emission, sale and management of Bankia preferential shares.