CAM “independent risk committee” was run by a professional ballerina (no wonder they went bust)

Isabel Cambronero has been called before the Valencian Córtes, to testify about the collapse of the Valencian savings bank.

Isabel, a professional classical ballerina by trade, also happened to be (a now ex) head of the banks risk committee, and has possibly made history by complaining to the government investigation committee that “nobody ever told her that there was any sort of a problem at the bank”.

Well, quite.

She added that the committees role was usually to rubber stamp the decisions made by the Banks directors. “We weren’t expected to discuss these decisions” she pointed out.

“We were guided by the external auditors who would present their reports to us. We had no reason to doubt they were correct. Why go running to a doctor when you aren’t aware of any symptoms?” she argued.

Isabel’s salary wasn’t made public, but was mentioned as “important”. A separate website claims she was paid 80,000€ a year.

And the Spanish wonder why all theirs banks went under. No wonder the Germans have announced they will put their own auditors in to oversee the rescue package.

Later: According to this fellow, other members of the committee were Noelia Sala, a licensed nurse who had worked as a bank cashier; María Martínez, a licensed psychiatrist, Natalia Caballé, a professional artist who had an MBA from EADE, Diego Orenes, a technician in cultural management (what? técnico de gestión cultural), and an industrial risk assessor, Juan Pacheco.

CAM, the Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo, was once one of Spains largest savings banks, until it went bankrupt, and as such I’m not sure that this bunch of monkeys were the best people to be overseeing the decisions of the board of directors. I wonder who they were sleeping with to get these well paid positions?