She is a Valencian, businesswoman, financier, CEO of the firm Libertas 7 and vice-president of the Valencian Business Association, AVE, an entity chaired by Vicente Boluda and of which Juan Roig, among others, is a part. This could be the text written on Agnès Noguera’s business card. But it would be an unfair summary of the dimension of a woman who is, like her brothers, daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of a Valencian saga, the Nogueras, decisive for decades in the definition of the Valencian business, economic and financial world. As examples, one of her ancestors was the founder of Banco de Valencia, now a defunct entity; and her father was, in addition to being a businessman, co-founder of the newspaper El PaÃs and patron of many cultural initiatives. Agnès Noguera is also a representative of the enlightened Valencian bourgeoisie, or what remains of it. Description, the enlightened, which should not be understood only as a social class formed and educated, but also enlightened in the embryonic sense of the term that refers to the defense of classical liberalism and the Voltairian principle of tolerance.
I have known Agnès for years. And with her I have commented on many occasions the enormous weakness of Valencians not having their own strong financial system, something that other geographies such as Catalonia, the Basque Country or Madrid do have. The real estate crisis of 2008, political interventionism and the terrible management of some of those responsible led to the collapse of Bancaja, Banco de València and Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, CAM. In a few years, the entire regional banking structure disappeared, with the worthy exception of some minor entities such as Caixa Popular or Caixa d’Ontinyent. No other Spanish geography paid, in financial terms, such a high price for the crisis that dynamited the construction sector and the excesses of those responsible for some public administrations, which squandered the savings of millions of Valencians in ruinous projects. Caixabank and Banco de Sabadell would end up taking over Banco de Valencia and CAM; And luckily, because it could have been worse if the Catalan entities had not entered. Bancaja, integrated into Bankia, deserves a separate chapter.
Pretending to create a Valencian bank again no longer seems viable, especially in these times when even traditional banking is suffering to adapt to the demands of the digital paradigm and in which new commercial and personal credit formulas are emerging, even from Google. But it is worth asking this question: is it possible to recover investment models with other financial structures that make it possible to energize local initiatives and unite, as in the past, the complicities of the economic and financial world? Is it possible to extend methodologies such as that of Angels, an investment company promoted by Juan Roig, to obtain capital for entrepreneurs or motivate private capital investment through financial formulas such as Valencian investment funds?
It is a mistake to believe that Valencian society does not have the muscle for this type of initiative; The business fabric is not that of Madrid or Catalonia, obviously, but it has sufficient strengths to be able to channel financial initiatives, even if they are smaller. Another question is whether we have enough businessmen and investors with this mentality, a Valencian bourgeoisie capable of observing its environment as a geography in which it can participate beyond its mere business activity, in the best tradition of the enlightened bourgeoisie. The commitment to the Mediterranean Corridor that AVE is carrying out confirms that, if the Valencian employers’ association has been able to unite with a common objective for the benefit of all of Valencian society, the same successes could be achieved with other causes. Agnès Noguera represents this type of business profile that Valencian society needs, and there are many, many more like her. They only have, as Juan Roig says, “come out of the closet.”
PS: Last Wednesday, Agnès Noguera convened in the spectacular museum L’Iber de València, owned by the family, a not infrequent audience to listen to Pilar del RÃo talk about José Saramago; activity organized by her brother Alejandro. Let the example spread.
