Goirigolzarri, a banking survivor who left Francisco González’s BBVA and piloted the rescue of Bankia

This Wednesday, Caixabank confirmed a goodbye that very few in the financial sector expected, despite the fact that it was a movement that was going to happen sooner or later: the departure of José Ignacio Goirigolzarri from the presidency of Caixabank as of next January 1, 2025. With his step back, a history of the sector, with several working lives behind him in three of the largest national entities, says goodbye to the bank: BBVA, Bankia and Caixabank.

Born in Bilbao in 1954 and graduated in Economics from the University of Deusto, Goirigolzarri is a survivor of the big Spanish banks, with the background, above all, of having piloted the rescue of Bankia. After its merger with Caixabank in 2021, he served as executive president, in an entity in which the State maintains 17% of the shareholders. However, executive power was – and will remain – in the hands of the CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, with CriteriaCaixa, the holding company of the La Caixa Banking Foundation, as the first shareholder, with 31.7% of the capital.

“I have not come here to clarify responsibilities.” That was Goirigolzarri’s response to the media when in May 2012, in the midst of the financial crisis, he was appointed president of Bankia after the entity was blown up in the savings bank disaster. He was chosen to replace Rodrigo Rato as president of Bankia, with the mission of trying to put its finances in order. He achieved it because the State entered into the capital of the entity with an injection of public funds of more than 20,000 million euros with which to solve a management for which no person responsible for the entity has ended up being convicted.

Goirigolzarri spent almost a decade at the head of Bankia, from 2012 until 2021, when its merger with Caixabank was completed. In reality, that was his second life in the financial sector. His first experience at the helm of a large bank was at BBVA, where he spent almost three decades, coming from the former Banco Bilbao.

Right hand of Francisco González at BBVA

Now, at the time of saying goodbye to Caixabank, Goirigolzarri is 70 years old. In 2009, he was 55. It was then that he agreed with BBVA for an early and golden retirement, which lasted less than three years.

When the bubble was already beginning to burst and half the world was experiencing a major financial crisis, Goirigolzarri presented his resignation as CEO of BBVA, a position he had held for nine years. The reason, according to several media outlets: that Francisco González had decided to remain as president of the entity, at least until he turned 70. His position passed into the hands of Ángel Cano, who remained for almost five years, when he was replaced by Carlos Torres. In reality, the power of BBVA remained in the hands of González, until he said goodbye in 2019 after the Villarejo scandal, a trial still pending sentencing.

Nor was his arrival to the position of CEO of BBVA without controversy, because it came after the former leaders of the former BBV, Emilio Ybarra and Pedro Luis Uriarte, had to resign when it was discovered that the bank maintained secret accounts in the tax haven of Jersey. to finance their salaries. It cost them their position. At that time, various sources pointed out to Francisco González, who had the support of José María Aznar’s Executive, a leak that allowed him to become president of BBVA. Ybarra, who died in 2019, ended up being sentenced by the National Court in 2005, but only to six months in prison, for a crime of misappropriation, since it took into account mitigating circumstances of “confession.”

Your salary at Bankia and Caixabank

After his appointment as president of Bankia in 2012, the rescued entity set him a salary of 500,000 euros, which he maintained for five consecutive years, although in subsequent years he raised it to 800,000. During the pandemic, his compensation was cut again to 500,000 euros. However, the merger with Caixabank once again injected oxygen into his salary, which last year reached 2.25 million euros. Altogether, since Goirigolzarri took charge of Bankia and the subsequent presidency of Caixabank, he has received more than 11.2 million euros.

Now, as president, although not an executive of Caixabank, he is replaced by Tomás Muniesa, a man of the house. Muniesa has been in charge of the insurance business – VidaCaixa and SegurCaixa Adeslas – and since April 2018 he has already served as vice president, so it will not be an internal revolution.

Muniesa has been with the bank for almost 50 years, which he joined in 1976 and is already a member of the board of directors, where he represents Criteria. He will not take office until next January 1 and will not have as much power as Goirigolzarri, because all executive positions remain in the hands of Gonzalo Gortázar.