Last week the board of directors of the Caja Mediterráneo (CAM) said that the building society had returned to a situation of ‘stability and consensus’ following a week of upsets at the CAM when a group within the board of directors demanded that new representatives of the building society be elected before it is taken over by the Bank of Spain. However, the Chairman of CAM has spoke out against electing new representatives before the CAM becomes part of the Bank of Spain saying that this would be more damaging to the reputation of the building society and create ‘feelings of instability’. The Bank of Spain will gain a majority stake in the Mediterranean building society with an input of 2,800 million euros into CAM’s social capital obtained from the funds for the restructuring of banking (FROB). This means that the bank of Spain will hold 85% of the social capital of the CAM. This large stake in the CAM will allow the Bank of Spain a free hand in deciding on the formation of the CAM’s board of directors.

What appears clear is that the Bank of Spain will impose a majority on this group and create an board of directors whose role will be first and foremost technical not political which is why it will get rid of certain members of the current board of directors.
The CAM was one of the first Spanish building societies in 2008 to launch itself onto the stock market by selling shares in order to obtain liquidity.