Caja de Ahorros del
Mediterráneo - CAM Bank (Banco CAM)
Bank of Spain
Governor Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez called
the behaviour of the CAM executives "scandalous" and said the
bank was "the worst of the worst" (Lo Peor de lo Peor) at a
press conference in September 2011 CAM Bank are the financial entity funding the Las Higuericas, Finca
Parcs project.
CAM Bank issued Bank Guarantees to 'selected' purchasers on all 5 Phases of the project.
CAM Bank failed to issue Bank Guarantees to FINCA PARCS ACTION GROUP
members.
CAM Bank knowingly accepted off-plan deposit funds and failed to demand
the
issuing of the Bank Guarantees as required by LEY 57/68 Article 1.2
CAM Bank was aware that their name and logo was being used in all the
Finca Parcs advertising.
CAM Bank was aware that a clause in every Finca Parcs Sales Agreement
(Contrato de Compraventa) stated:
The CAM Bank website states:
CAM Bank state that they carry out financial operations in accordance
with current
legislation and best banking practice, however this is certainly not the
case with
Finca Parcs as CAM Bank and their client Cleyton GES SL have clearly
acted contrary
to the requirements of LEY 57/68 Article 1.1 and 1.2
The 'Our Commitment' page of Mediterranean CAM International Homes
website states:
So CAM International Homes
make a commitment that they will only market properties
which comply with the requirements of LEY 57/68 Article 1.1 and 1.2:
".......we only market properties built with the
mandatory insurance policies on their construction and
which PROVIDE BUYERS WITH SECURED BANK GUARANTEES TO SAFEGUARD THEIR
INVESTMENT"
However, from the evidence at Finca Parcs, it is clear that when CAM
Bank fund a developer and
a construction project such as Cleyton GES SL / Finca Parcs they
knowingly accept millions of Euros
in off-plan deposits and fail to demand the issuing of the legally
required Bank Guarantees as
required by LEY 57/68 Article 1.1 and 1.2
CAM Bank are clearly guilty of gross negligence and have shown a total
lack of professional
due diligence in this matter.
CAM Bank have offices in many countries of the world including a UK
Office in
Charles II Street, London. The UK branch of CAM Bank was registered with the
Financial Services Authority (FSA)
from 30 March 2007
until 7 August 2008.
The FSA website gives the current status for
CAM Bank as: No longer Authorised.
When you put your mouse over the words 'No longer Authorised' the FSA
provides the
following advice: "Describes a firm that has been authorised at some time since 1
December 2001 but is no
longer authorised. Do not start to do business with a firm that is no
longer authorised"
FINCA PARCS ACTION GROUP OFFICIAL COMPLAINT
TO CAM BANK
31 July 2008 - Original 8 group
members make complaint to Fernando Martinez Hernandez,
Director of CAM Bank in Murcia. Fernando Martinez Hernandez failed
to acknowledge the complaint.
10 October 2008 - Original 8 group
members make complaint to Mr Aurelio Enrique Pedros Vaya, Director,
CAM Bank, London Representative Office.
6 January 2009 - 2 of the original 8 group
members have meeting with Mr Aurelio Enrique Pedros Vaya
at the
CAM Bank London Representative Office.
4 February 2009 - Original 8 group
members present 100 page complaint file to CAM Bank,
Defensor del Cliente department in Alicante.
3 December 2009 - CAM Bank complaint
escalated to highest level within the Bank - to the
President - Modesto Crespo, CEO - Roberto Lopez Abad,
Director CAM
Legal Department Alicante - Nicolás Muñoz,
Director CAM Legal Department Murcia -
José Antonio
García Pallarés & Sub Director Oficina 0346 - Enrique Soler Lapuente.
Caja de Ahorros del
Mediterraneo Merger Announced
Spain May Take Over CAM
After Merger Talks Fail
MADRID—Ailing Spanish savings bank
Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo began discussing its
possible nationalization with Banco
de España - the central bank - on Thursday, after its merger
with three small peers fell apart late Wednesday.
A spokesman said the Alicante-based savings bank, or
CAJA,
is presenting the Bank of Spain
with a new business plan and an application for money from Spain's
state-financed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, also known as FROB.
He declined to say how much money the bank, known as CAM, needed, but analysts
calculate that it would be enough to give the FROB control of more than
50% of the bank.
The nationalization of CAM would be the first since the Spanish government, under pressure to
shore up international confidence in the health of the country's banks,
in February set new minimum capital requirements. It said it would take
equity stakes in those institutions that weren't able to raise new
money. The Bank of Spain
estimated that 12 banks would have to raise a total of €15.15 billion
($21.4 billion).
The confidence-boosting exercise, however, fell flat, as many
independent analyses said Spanish banks would need much more capital.
Moody's Investors Service, for example, estimated that banks would need
between €40 billion and €50 billion.
The failed merger, which fell apart late Wednesday, comes at a delicate
time for Spain. The government is stepping up overhaul efforts and has
allayed concerns that Spanish lenders could be hit by the deepening
crisis in neighboring Portugal. Spain's borrowing costs have stabilized
and have come down slightly in recent months, whereas investors have
continued to dump bonds of the smaller Iberian neighbor.
CAM, Spain's 10th-largest
lender, was in advanced talks to merge with smaller peers Cajastur, Caja
Cantabria and Caja Extremadura that would have formed Banco Base, the
country's sixth-largest lender.
The would-be partners had become increasingly concerned about CAM's solvency. These worries
led provisional management to request €2.78 billion from the FROB,
nearly twice the amount that the central bank had estimated Banco Base
needed to satisfy new minimum capital requirements.
Such a hefty capital injection would have implied a significant dilution
to stakeholders and given a large holding to the state-financed fund.
CAM's three former
partners have started new merger talks among themselves, a Caja
Extremadura spokesman said. As they are relatively small entities, they
could explore the possibility of adding other cajas to their group, he
said.
The breakup of the Banco Base merger "raises, once again, concerns on
the amount of losses" in the Spanish banking system, said BPI analyst
Carlos Peixoto.
These concerns are especially acute regarding Spain's mutually
controlled cajas. With their close ties to local communities and
governments, Spain's cajas have born the brunt of the country's housing
bust.
Banco Base was forced last week to abandon plans to hold an initial
public offering, primarily because of CAM's large holdings of
properties on the Mediterranean Coast, ground zero of the country's
housing collapse.
Other cajas have encountered similar difficulties to raise funds from
private investors. A key test for confidence in the industry will be the
success of the offering of the largest caja, Bankia, a lender with
€344.5 billion in assets, scheduled for this summer.
Javier Diaz-Gimenez, economics professor at the IESE business school,
said he thought CAM's
request for a capital injection from the FROB would be the first of
many. "The FROB will end up needing to pay out substantially more than
the amount originally estimated," he said.
Spain's FROB has invested €11.56 billion into the country's savings
banks, given in the form of loans. It has an additional €4.5 billion on
hand to invest but can raise up to €99 billion through state-backed debt
issuance.
Spain
Willing to Pump Up to $27 Billion Into CAM,
Mundo Says
By Esteban Duarte -
Sep 19, 2011 6:34
AM GMT+0100
Spain’s
banks rescue fund may cover as much as 20 billion euros ($27.2 billion)
of potential losses at Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo (CAM), El Mundo reported,
citing sale documents sent to potential buyers by the nation’s central
bank.
The cash injection
would be through a so-called “asset protection” program, which would
protect the new owner of the bank from losses due deterioration of asset
value or defaults, El Mundo said.
