Following is a letter sent to the Editor of the Financial Times:
Francisco González, President of BBVA, spent time this weekend with his shareholders at his annual general meeting, where he announced record profits, even more record than those he announced last year, and also with a few thousand of his top executives, talking about the bank's future strategy ("BBVA's chief hits back over Italy criticism" FT March 20, 2006).
During the bonhomie, he hit back at his critics over the bank´s failed Italian strategy, losing the takeover of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). His justification is that the unethical business practices found in Italy were not those that he and his bank were willing to engage in, that ethics and good governance are not negotiable for his bank.
It is laudable that an executive declines to engage in practices that he considers unethical and bad governance, even at the expense of pushing forward his strategy.
It is clear that unethical and potentially illegal activities went on in order to prevent the ownership of BNL going to a non-Italian institution, the local investigations are continuing. However, he was way too enthusiastic when he painted all Italian business practices with the same unethical brush.
Mr. Gonzalez has made his bank's reentry into Italy a little more difficult.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
The chairman of BBVA has lashed out at critics of his failed expansion strategy in Italy, saying the Spanish bank "didn't like the practices it saw" in the country.
Francisco González said BBVA had backed out of a battle for Banca Nazionale de Lavoro (BNL) because the ethical code of a competing bidder "was a long way from [that] of this bank".
See full Article (paid subscription required).
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