Bank of Spain intervenes Banco de Madrid
The Spanish central bank announced on Tuesday night it was intervening Banco de Madrid S.A., a small bank 100% owned by Andorran lender BPA.
This decision followed US Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network accusations over the Andorran bank Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) for being “a foreign financial institution subject to primary money laundering concern”.
BPA has been operating in the Principality of Andorra since 1957, and it is owned by the Andorran family Cierco.
According to the Spanish newspaper ABC, Banco de Madrid serves about 15,000 clients and has approximately six billion euros in assets under management.
In a press statement released on Tuesday night, Bank of Spain made clear that the decision came after the Andorran National Finance Institute (INAF, as abbreviated in Catalan) decided to intervene the bank in order to “ensure the continuity of its operations”.
The head of the Andorran government, Antoni Martí, sent a message of reassurance to the population. “Thanks to the actions that have taken place in the past and that are still taking place, you can maintain absolute calm about BPA´s operations", he said.
In a press conference, a Banco de Madrid spokesman stressed that the bank had full confidence in the "investigative work" carried out by the Bank of Spain auditors and that the financial institution would successfully fulfill requirements.
Technical analyst José María Rodríguez told Digital Look's sister site in Madrid Bolsamanía that the announcement should have little impact on the rest of Spain's financial sector since the investigation was centred on money laundering and was not questioning the bank's solvency.