Five years have passed since Banco Popular's resolution

MADRID, 7 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

This Tuesday, June 7, marks five years since the Single Resolution Board (JUR) decided to apply the resolution procedure to Banco Popular and immediately sell it to Banco Santander for the symbolic price of one euro, in such a way that Popular became the first entity to which the bank resolution rules were applied, thus avoiding a bailout with public money.

Specifically, early in the morning of June 7, 2017, it was known that the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) executed the Popular resolution agreed by the SRB and sold 100% of the bank's share capital to Santander, after an auction carried out by the Single Resolution Fund (FUR) and the FROB in which the entity chaired by Ana Botín was selected as the successful bidder.

In this way, Popular became the first entity to which the rules for resolution of banking entities of the European Union were applied, approved after the financial crisis of 2008 with the aim of avoiding bailouts with public money and which have been in force since January 2016.

It was precisely a year before the resolution, in 2016, when the news about the entity's problems became more acute, weighed down especially by its real estate business. In this sense, some initiatives that the entity announced in mid-2016 stand out, such as the 'Sunrise' project, which consisted of the creation of a company that would bring together its real estate assets. Finally, it was scrapped in the first quarter of 2017.

In addition, between July 2016 and April 2017 there were a series of changes in its management leadership: first, Francisco Gómez was replaced by Pedro Larena as executive director in July 2016, while in February 2017 the change was announced of the president of Popular, Ángel Ron, by Emilio Saracho. In April 2017, Larena resigned as CEO and was replaced by Ignacio Sánchez-Asiaín.

After Popular's resolution and the sale of 100% of the share capital to Santander, several legal proceedings were initiated, especially by those shareholders affected by the SRB's decision.

In this sense, the Third Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on the matter last May, declaring that the European regulations on resolution preclude shareholders who bought shares of Popular before its resolution from being able to require Banco Santander to be held accountable for the information contained in the prospectus or bring an action for annulment of the subscription contract for these shares, which would give rise to the restitution of the amounts invested and the accrued interest.

Likewise, just a few days ago, the General Court of the European Union (TGUE) endorsed the dissolution of Popular after completely rejecting the appeals filed by the shareholders against the resolution of the entity in 2017, for which it also rejected the return of the money of the actions a compensation to the plaintiffs.

In Spain, the National Court has a case open, currently in the investigation phase, in which the alleged irregularities that led to the resolution and subsequent sale of Popular are being investigated.