MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Controversial figure named to advisory board of the Euro-zone leading bank

Rodrigo Rato was also head of IMF but his performance during Spain’s financial crisis is much questioned

Santander, the Euro zone's biggest bank, has hired Rodrigo Rato, under investigation in connection with allegations of fraud at state-rescued lender Bankia when he was chairman, to its international advisory board.

Rato, who has also served as head of the International Monetary Fund and as Spain's economy minister, will advise the bank's board on designing, developing and implementing its overall business strategy, a spokeswoman for the bank said.

Earlier this year Rato, who was ousted from Bankia when it was nationalized in 2012, was appointed by Telefonica to the advisory boards of its European and Latin American businesses.

With 32 other Bankia board members he is the subject of an investigation into allegations of fraud, price-fixing, and falsifying accounts in connection with the listing of the lender in 2011.

Santander administration board is headed by Emilio Botin (the family that controls the bank) and since 1997 has an international advisory board made of people from different countries and different backgrounds.

All of them are outside the bank and “in no case have any management or administration condition” points out Santander annual report of last year. However the advisory group only met twice last year during which it addressed among other issues, the group’s results; EU prospects; US election results and its impact on the world economy, as well as the evolution of Spain’s economy and financial reform.

The advisory board has ten members of six different nationalities with Antonino Fernandez, former head of the Mexican Modelo group as chariman. Other members are former CEOs from different companies, an ex US ambassador in Spain and Francisco Pinto, former Portuguese Prime Minister.

The initial reaction of the naming of Rato to the advisory group of the Euro leading bank did not have a positive reaction in Spain’s political system and media.