Congress endorses the Government’s candidates for president and vice president of the CNMV

This Tuesday, the Congress of Deputies endorsed the opinions of suitability and absence of conflicts of interest of the Government’s candidates for president and vice president of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), Carlos San Basilio and Paloma Marín, respectively.

In the vote, which is not binding on the Executive, the opinion in favor of San Basilio has passed by 18 votes in favor, none against and 16 abstentions. That of Marín has been approved by 18 votes in favor and 17 against.

During the debate, all groups recognized the technical profile of San Basilio, currently a director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, and Paloma Marín, who has spent almost 20 years at the Bank of Spain, where the Current governor, former minister José Luis Escrivá, appointed her general director of Institutional, European Relations and Transparency after his appointment in September.

“We value their markedly technical profiles in line with their predecessors,” said PP spokesperson Irene Garrido, “the opposite” of what happened with the appointment of Escrivá.

The popular deputy has pointed out that both will have the challenge of “being independent” and “continuing to be so”: “The Government that we are suffering from is not going to make it easy for them,” stated the representative of a party that, during the Mariano Rajoy era , placed the former minister and current PP deputy, Elvira Rodríguez, at the head of the CNMV.

Garrido recalled that San Basilio, a commercial technician of the State, was a senior official of Rajoy (director of the Treasury) and coincided with him in the Economy, with Luis de Guindos as minister. “I also have very good memories of our time working in the ministry,” the future president of the CNMV later responded.

Both candidates have avoided commenting on BBVA’s takeover bid for Banco Sabadell or the sanctioning files related to Grifols. San Basilio has committed to acting “with maximum independence” in the takeover bid and, without going into details, has described as “reasonable” the CNMV’s decision to wait for the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) analyze the operation in depth “to know in greater detail the final conditions, especially in an exchange operation” like this one.

Asked about the bill to create the Financial Client Defense Authority, San Basilio pointed out that “it makes sense” to offer an extrajudicial mechanism to resolve conflicts for clients, but without this “overlapping” with the functions of organizations. already existing, such as the CNMV itself.

“If it goes ahead, the biggest concern will be to guarantee excellent coordination with the rest of the supervisory bodies. “That there is no overlap,” said the candidate for vice president.

Regarding cryptoassets, which San Basilio has pointed out as one of the main challenges that he will face, the future president of the CNMV recalled that the still president of the CNMV, Rodrigo Buenaventura, “has been especially prudent” in relation to them, But the regulations “are what they are” and the MiCA regulation, which comes into force in January and provides the agency with supervisory capacity over this sector, “will apply.” He explained that they have told him that the CNMV, despite its “difficulties” in reinforcing staff, another of the challenges that it has pointed out for the future, has been “foresighted” to meet the new needs that this work will require. “At the moment there has not been an avalanche of institutions” to manage cryptoassets, which is why he has relied on “controlled digestion” for the regulator.

San Basilio began his speech by thanking Minister Carlos Corpus for his “trust” for proposing him for the position and congratulated the work done by Buenaventura and the outgoing vice president, Montserrat Martínez Parera. He has pointed out that “a lot of progress has been made” in investor protection and he hopes to “move forward” in channeling financial resources to entrepreneurs so that capital markets have “more relevance” in the financing of companies.

He has also pointed out among the challenges the adaptation of the CNMV to the demands of its mandate, “with adequate technical and human means”, in a labor relations model with “rigidities” and that requires “greater autonomy in basic issues such as filling vacancies. ”, especially in areas such as digital skills.

The candidate for vice president of the CNMV has stressed her independence of judgment, “the only way to do our job well”: “I have been with governors appointed by different governments” and “my degree of independence of critical judgment has always been the same” . Regarding “the reasons why I am leaving so soon” from the Bank of Spain after less than three months as general director, it has been a “very difficult” decision: “I was very happy with my skills, with my portfolio and with my team ”, but it was an “opportunity to expand my knowledge.”