Jon Emaldi Abasolo surveys the remains of Spain’s devastated banking landscape and scratches his head. He’s genuinely confused.
“We know how we manage our bank,” says Abasolo, a director of the Basque savings bank Caja Laboral Kutxa, part of the Mondragon group of co-operative businesses (MCC), “and we know that it is managed properly. And we ask ourselves if it could be any better managed than it is if we paid ourselves 10 times more?”
He answers his own question: “I don’t think so.”
It’s a question that may well be asked of the British enterprise regarded by many as the grandfather of co-operative banking.
Once seen as a global model for community banking and business, the Manchester-based Co-op has become a byword for notoriety, capped last month by losses of £2.5 billion ($4.2 billion), mostly accumulated at the Co-op Bank, revealed by its parent, The Co-operative Group after what the group admitted were “fundamental failings in management and governance at the group over many years”.
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| Jon Emaldi Abasolo, Caja Laboral Kutxa |
Abasolo’s musings come as he leafs through industry comparisons matching Laboral with competitor banks in Spain, including its main rival in this prosperous part of Spain, the Bilbao-based and privately owned Kutxabank.
