The president of the National Stock Market Commission (CNMV), Rodrigo Buenaventura, has lamented certain “behaviors and conducts of various listed companies on independent directors” and has asked the new government to emerge on July 23 to guarantee their protection. Buenaventura has made these statements in the last session of the summer courses organized by the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) and APIE in Santander.
The president of the CNMV has again broken a spear in favor of these figures. “I do not want to say that they are immovable, but neither can it be the adjustment variable in situations of shareholder or business conflict” and, in recent years, we have seen how independent directors were “the ones who paid the price for restructuring and it has come to It’s time to say enough is enough for this type of practice”.
Buenaventura has defended its role within the company, considering that it is key for the alignment of the company with the shareholders, “which is not the only piece of good governance, but it is important and it has to be done with guarantees. Without being compromised “, he insisted. That’s why, The CNMV has sent a proposal to the Government to subject the removal of independent directors to listed companies. “We are endowing protection to their mandates and it would be very interesting that it be promoted and debated by the government that comes out of the elections”.
During his speech, Buenaventura has insisted that it is time to tackle this problem, which has affected different companies in the last year (like Indra), but that is not something new. The proposal defended by the supervisory body is that the meeting of a company includes in the agenda the resignation of the independent directors so that the “shareholders do not find out from the press and be able to comment on this proposition.” This proposal is not new, since it was developed with the Indra case. To date, the tools available to the CNMV are articulated through two lines of action: reinforcement of legal protections with information requirements and Good Governance recommendations.
No concern about transferring deposits to funds
Buenaventura has not shown concern about the transfer of balances from deposits to funds. “The regulations that regulate investor protection in terms of funds are very extensive, much more extensive than that which can affect deposits,” he defended, who has defended that it is good news.
From the point of view of planning and financial education, the CNMV is calm about the greater use of medium to long-term financial products, but “what we have detected is a proliferation of target return funds, which is a subtype of fixed income funds, where circumstances may arise for the investor who wants to exit before expiration in a context of rising rates to do so with losses and in these cases we have adopted some guidelines to reinforce investor warnings so that they are very aware of these risks,” he clarified.
“In that case, we have taken measures. such as the update of the CNMV technical guide to reinforce investor warnings before contracting”, Buenaventura has indicated. Regarding investors who were able to invest in these funds at a time of negative interest rates and have lost money in the current situation, the president of the CNMV has pointed out that They have not detected a “uptick” in claims. However, he has recognized that “financial education is important in the medium term”, that although “it does not solve short-term problems, in the long run there is no better protected client than the informed client”.
