Calviño e Iglesias, clash of vice presidents in sight for the management of Bankia

The government agreement between PSOE and Podemos was charged yesterday as the first stock market victim to Bankia. The nationalized entity enjoyed a rise in the price of its shares of 2.6% until, after filtering the pact at 1:40 p.m., its price was distorted to accumulate a decrease of more than 5% in some parts of the day. From 1.85 euros per share to 1.73 euros, with a loss of value of 371 million euros.

The party led by Pablo Iglesias promised in campaign that if he came to power he would launch a battery of changes in the financial entity that would affect his management and his strategy. The first of these measures would be to "prevent" the privatization of the group ordered by Brussels to return part of the funds used in its 'rescue' in 2012.

Instead of proceeding with its sale, Podemos proposes its conversion into a public bank to "introduce competition in the sector and ensure that the most productive and dynamic elements of the system, such as freelancers, SMEs and social economy companies, have access to credit" . This vision has always been very questioned by the current leaders of the entity, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri and José Sevilla , who believe that this banking model would lead to a deterioration of the balance sheet and the income statement of the group.

The plan of Iglesias for Bankia would also include "introducing parameters of justice in the mortgage market," the installation of ATMs in Spain emptied and investments in social housing. The leader of Podemos will also require the immediate departure of Goirigolzarri and the election of a new president with the support of three fifths of Congress.

Although the bank occupied a full point of the program with which Podemos attended the last elections of 10-N, there is no reference to this issue in the two pages where both formations show their commitment to government in 10 points.

Financial sources highlight that the agreement is only a commitment - similar to the one reached by PSOE and Citizens in 2016 - and they trust that the future economic vice president Nadia Calviño contains the plans of Podemos for the group after having repeatedly praised its independent management.

What seems more difficult to continue is the privatization process initiated by Luis de Guindos and extended until the end of 2021 by the current Government. Calviño has already publicly stated that "there is no hurry" to sell the entity and, de facto, the process had already been paralyzed by the market conditions and the stock market collapse of the financial entity in a context of negative interest rates in Europe.

Bankia was not the only financial institution that suffered yesterday on the Stock Exchange after knowing the government agreement of Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias. All financial institutions fell sharply at the threat of suffering new taxes from the new Executive, but the impact was greater in those whose business is concentrated in the domestic market. CaixaBank closed the session with a drop of 3.7%, Sabadell of 2% and Bankinter of 1.3%, while Santander and BBVA recorded losses of 1% and 0.2%, respectively.

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