From Good to Bad Bankers
Aristóbulo de JuanRelease date:22 March 2019
Language:English
Pages:149
ISBN:9783030115500
Publisher:Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Price:€ 27.33
Bankers are administrators of other people’s money, and they are responsible both to their depositors and to other stakeholders. Human nature being what it is, however, they sometimes fall prey to overweening ambition, coming to see themselves as the rightful beneficiaries of the moneys entrusted to them. This can lead them to make poor lending decisions and engage in risky practices, eventually moving on to cosmetic accounting and the concealment of problems, speculation and even outright fraud.
Supervisors are there to prevent such behaviour, of course. They are responsible to government and the general public alike for the stability of the financial system, the proper allocation of financial resources by the banks and the protection of depositors and creditors. Their responsibility is, then, subsidiary to that of the bankers themselves.
Where supervision is lax and ineffective, however, it encourages bad management by bankers, creating a vicious circle that eventually leads to financial crises, which has most often to be cured using tax-payers’ money. Of course, it also hurts the broader economy. That is why the inseparable trio of regulation, supervision and resolution must exist.
In this collection of his writings over a period of some 50 years, Aristóbulo de Juan describes the causes, characteristics and consequences of financial crises based on his own experience as a central banker, world bank expert and consultant spanning a career of more than 55 years.
In a nutshell, the papers brought together in this book recount circumstances that have always plagued banking, and that are only too likely to recur in the future.
Aristóbulo de Juan
Aristóbulo de Juan is one of the most important experts in banking systems in Europe. He has more than 48 years of experience in banking, including 14 years in top positions in private commercial banking. He is considered a worldwide authority in his areas of expertise. He is President and founder of Aristóbulo de Juan & Asociados since 1989. This consulting company, with HQ in Madrid (Spain), is specialized in topics related to banking, banking supervision and bank resolution.
Previously, for more than two years, he was Senior Financial Advisor at the World Bank, in Washington D.C. In this position he was an advisor for the World Bank policy maker and the Governments of several developing countries on Financial Sector Reform and banking. He also founded and ran, along with the FED, a permanent seminar for international bank supervisors.
He was also General Manager at Banco de España, a position in which he was responsible for the banking supervision of over 350 financial institutions. In this capacity, he overhauled the Spanish banking regulation, as well as the supervision strategies and mechanisms. He was also First Chief Executive Officer of the Fondo de Garantía de Depósitos (Deposit Insurance Fund) within the same institution. This institution dealt with the Spanish banking crisis of the ‘80s, where 52 out of 106 banks as well as a number of saving banks and credit unions failed. Under his leadership, this institution designed from scratch and handled the restructuring and sale of 48 of those banks, as well as the merger and/or liquidation of a number of other financial institutions. He has worked “hands-on” on the reform of financial systems of over 30 countries, ranging from China, Russia and the USA, to Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Poland, former Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Egypt and Turkey. During the current crisis, his advice is being sought after by international and national institutions and specialists.
