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Priest cum Chairman of Spanish Bank CajaSur prays as bank gets seized

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The State of  Management of some of the European banks would seem funny  if it was not such a serious matter.According to Bloomberg ,Bank CajaSur which has almost 1% of Spain’s total bank assets was run by the Catholic Church.The new chairman whose primary job is that of a priest started his chairmanship by reading a prayer while his bank reported $750 million in losses.There are 16 such large mutually owned banks called Cajas in Spain which have no shareholders and are run it seems almost amateurishly.They had a good run when the whole Spanish economy was Booming through a Real Estate  fueled Speculation . However they have run into solvency issues  in the current 20% unemployment scenario.German Landesbanks are also facing huge NPAs with heavy exposure to toxic assets.

CajaSur Seizure Marks Change for Spain’s Ailing Banks – Businessweek

As a Roman Catholic priest, Santiago Gomez Sierra began his last board meeting as chairman of the failed Spanish savings bank CajaSur three days ago by saying a prayer. Some of the directors crossed themselves.

Within hours, the Bank of Spain stripped Gomez of his powers and threw out managers at the ailing 146-year-old lender, controlled by the Catholic Church in the southern city of Cordoba, citing “viability problems.” CajaSur lost 596 million euros ($748 million) on 426 million euros in revenue last year.

The Bank of Spain is stepping up efforts to shut down or buttress the weakest of Spain’s “cajas,” mutually owned banks that boosted lending more than fivefold during Spain’s economic boom and account for about half the country’s loans. The seizure is the first under a state-financed rescue plan that Standard & Poor’s estimates may cost as much as 35 billion euros, increasing the burden on Spain’s finances as the government tries to reduce its budget deficit.

PG

Sneha Shah

I am Sneha, the Editor-in-chief for the Blog. We would be glad to receive suggestions, inputs & comments on GWI from you guys to keep it going! You can contact me for consultancy/trade inquires by writing an email to greensneha@yahoo.in

2 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

  1. k a prasanna

    Spanish and Europe are different markets. India is different. Do not compare them with India. Our domestic growth story is excellent. We shall over take all economies in another 15-20 years including USA. We are three times the size of USA in terms of population. Ten times more intelligent population. That is what matters. Wait and watch.

  2. Abhishek

    Where am i comparing the market in this article? If you read you my article http://greenworldinvestor.com/2010/05/27/new-secular-bull-market-or-a-cyclical-bull-within-a-secular-bear/ you will see that I think the emerging markets will outperform the developed ones.