The president of BBK, Xabier Sagredo, has affirmed that a scenario like that of the 2008 crisis is not being experienced at all and has stressed that Kutxabank is “very well managed” and is one of “the most solvent” in Europe.
Likewise, he has avoided “prosecuting” the tax on the Bank, specifying that “the laws are not for thinking about them, they are for executing them”, and he has urged “taking steps” to “disfigure” the “bad reputation” of the bank.
In an interview with Onda Vasca, Sagredo reiterated his satisfaction with the fact that BBK, as announced this past Wednesday, has completed, with 231 million, the reserve fund to maintain control of Kutxabank (with 57% of the shares) two years before the limit set by the regulator.
The president of BBK has assessed that the decision adopted after the approval of the law on savings banks and banking foundations in 2013, which forced entities with certain characteristics to become banking foundations and, if they wanted to maintain control in Kutxabank, present a reinforced financial plan that included providing a reserve fund to be able to rescue the bank in the event of possible future capital needs, as well as an income diversification and risk management plan.
After admitting that it has been a “very complicated stage and with a lot of pressure”, he explained that the reserve fund has been completed before the deadline with “a healthy and prudent management”, thinking “in the long term” that it is “in the ADN” from BBK because, he has warned, “short-termism leads you to be wrong”.
Sagredo has specified that an economic and financial plan has been taken that would give the Banking Foundation “an important solvency” to carry out the Social Work that, as he has remarked, “is the largest per inhabitant in the State and the second in amount”. . Along these lines, he pointed out that BBK’s Obra Social is now “more protected than ever.”
On the other hand, asked if he fears a contagion effect due to the latest news of uncertainty in the financial sector, he stated that “not at all” is a scenario like that of the 2008 crisis being experienced. Although “we live in a very globalized world and , therefore, very interconnected between one thing and another”, he stressed that Kutxabank is “very well managed” and is “the most solvent in the Spanish State and is among the most solvent at European level” and, furthermore, “has a shareholder who is there to protect you.
“If someone can give peace of mind, without a doubt, that’s us,” insisted Sagredo, who has defended the importance of “diversifying”, which has allowed the Basque group “to be one of the few that have not made an ERE, which it has maintained economic growth and employment” and, “most importantly”, maintain Obra Social and even increase it “at those times when Vizcaya needed it so much”.
In relation to the tax on the Bank, he has specified that it never seems to him “unfair what a government asks for.” «I think that those responsible are to overcome the laws. In 2013-2014, I was put under pressing pressure not to transform ourselves into a banking foundation when what I had on the table was a law that forced me to transform into a banking foundation. Laws are not there to be thought about, laws are there to be executed”, he pointed out.
For this reason, he has avoided “prosecuting what is done.” Likewise, he has appealed, given “this bad reputation that some companies have”, to start “among all of us, and also the Bank itself, to take steps so that it is disfigured and, therefore, that the reputational risk each time is less and we all face each other in a more friendly way to see certain issues naturally and with affection ».
The head of BBK has also alluded to the debate on the “rooting” of companies, to which he has encouraged “to think if the companies that are here should have more affection and show greater pride in society towards us and help too” .
Regarding the fact that Kutxabank has appealed this tax to the Bank, he has specified that he is “the president of BBK” and there is “an independent management and completely alien to us”
Finally, he has advocated for “a digitized banking” but that is committed to “non-financial exclusion”.