Juan María Nin (Barcelona, ??1953) has the soul of a banker. After being the chief executive of CaixaBank, he has now assumed the presidency of Morabanc. The Andorran entity has just opened an office in Madrid after launching one in Barcelona.
Why do you accept the presidency of a bank now, nine years after leaving CaixaBank?
Two reasons. I am passionate about banking. In addition, I have continued to be a banker on the board of Société Générale, which, as you know, is a world-class bank. Second reason, institutional. It seems to me that Morabanc is an institution, a bank with exemplary behavior. All the confidence in presiding over an institution that is in its fourth generation, which has been operating for 70 years in a perfectly serious country, with a great future in Europe, as evidenced by the fact that it occupies number 1 in the Basel ranking for governance.
Although a good part of the growth of the financial sector in Andorra is based on bank secrecy, which now no longer exists.
Makeover is one thing that takes time. Here are two considerations. First, compliance with the law. In Andorra as a country and in Andorran institutions – with the exceptions that may also exist in France, Spain, the Vatican or wherever – there is compliance. In general, in the United States and in Europe, when an institution misbehaves, what happens? that disappears We have seen it now in the United States. We have seen it in Switzerland. We have seen it in Spain. And we also saw it in Andorra with BPA. One case does not make the country.
Is it an impediment that the bank, like the rest of the Andorran entities, is not in the euro zone?
We are in Europe, our currency is the euro and we are physically in the euro, and at the moment we are negotiating a very interesting association agreement with the European Union.
But it is not supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB).
The Andorran banking system literally reproduces international regulations. And the monetary agreement that is in force. We are not here on the issue of access to the central bank. It’s like Switzerland, which isn’t there either. The Andorran government is negotiating what is called an association with Europe precisely to be able to have access to the European Central Bank via the Bank of Spain or the French Central Bank. All of this is being negotiated.
Given these considerations, why would a client prefer to be in an Andorran bank and not in a Spanish or French one?
The customer type does not exist. But there are customers who think that banks as specialized and with such a long tradition as Andorran banks, with a wide range of services in terms of products and quality of service, are an offer that is better suited to their needs. Because we do it very well, because we have been doing asset management and listening for many years. In this sense, it is a differential value.
Give me figures for that in Spain.
The goal we had for this year a few weeks ago, when we opened in Barcelona, ??was 500 million euros of assets managed. But we are going twice as fast as we had planned, we have already achieved 1,000 million. And in Madrid, where we have just opened, we have set ourselves some truly ambitious goals. The Madrid square has some differential characteristic with respect to the one in Barcelona.
Which?
What Madrid has at the moment is a strong inflow of heritage. I would say that it is a secondary but important heritage of Latin America. We are seeing a flow that goes from Latin America to Miami. These are people who like to live in Spain and, within Spain, in Madrid. They have a house and part of their assets and they open their accounts in Madrid. Because they won’t be calling Miami all day.
What services does Morabanc offer from Barcelona and Madrid?
Wealth management and advice. Now we have asked to be a securities company to be able to give credits.
Where do they invest?
We have 100% of the offer of variable income products, fixed income, hedge funds, structured products, private equity. What any private bank has at the moment. We have developed a part of these products with Goldman Sachs. But we also have those that are made in Andorra. We make them ourselves.
In the current scenario of high interest rates, what would be the most recommended investments?
Now, fixed income.
We have seen it in the images of people queuing at the Bank of Spain to buy bills.
Yes, but our clients bought the fixed income probably in January. They have already started positioning. Because we advise our clients and make our decisions.
How do you see the economic situation?
I leave aside the war, which is intolerable from all points of view and which, like all wars, has had and may have very serious economic consequences. But that is out of our control. We do not know. If we leave that aside, in the analysis of the situation, I am very positive.
Despite being the president of the bank, you do not live in Andorra.
No, I don’t live in Andorra, I live in Spain. But it is a country, in this sense, that does not require, as in all of Europe, that presidents or executives live in the corner.
On the other hand, are there youtubers living in the country?
They exist, it’s real. In Andorra there are youtubers and therefore it is not a myth. They are here, they ski, climb the mountain, breathe oxygen and enjoy Andorran taxation. The next question is: how much do these youtubers weigh in the Andorran economy and, within the Andorran economy, in the European one?
After so many years, we have to ask him about his departure from CaixaBank. What happened?
It happened that the mandates of the CEOs, either due to regulation and good governance or because a period of time runs out with a type of management, necessarily have to have an end. And anyone who knows the financial sector and sees the trajectory of La Caixa between 2007 and 2014 will see very clearly that there was a very marked banking and banking management cycle that led to a Savings Bank that was always excellent in leading the Spanish market with a process of transformation in the world of foundations. Then a cycle was covered, some results were presented. It was thought that another person or another type of management or whatever was appropriate.
What did he do next?
I started another life. With what? With a backpack. What was my backpack? Service paper. And with this backpack from the first day of my departure I have had a very intense professional activity because I had this service record and some results achieved. The professional world is very professional. And today I am president of four very important companies, of a European advisory board, vice president of the Círculo de Empresarios and member of the advisory board of a leading American technological multinational, among other things.
