By Jeannette Neumann
MADRID--The chairwoman of Spain's so-called "bad bank" has
stepped down and will be replaced by the current chief executive,
the entity said in a statement.
President Belén Romana is leaving the bad bank, known by its
Spanish acronym Sareb, and Jaime Echegoyen will take over the role.
Sareb said that Ms. Romana's resignation was "voluntary," and that
it had not named a new chief executive. Mr. Echegoyen was now the
entity's "main executive."
Mr. Echegoyen was appointed chief executive of Sareb in Feb.
2014 after leaving his post as head of Barclays PLC in Spain and
Portugal as the U.K. bank was put up for sale amid a downsizing
around the globe.
Sareb was created in November 2012 as a depository for the most
troubled Spanish banks to unload €51 billion ($57.1 billion) in
risky real-estate loans, residential foreclosures, unfinished
commercial properties and undeveloped pieces of land.
The banks that had transferred those real-estate related assets
to Sareb also had been tasked with marketing and selling properties
and loans on behalf of the bad bank. Some investors and analysts
said that process created potential conflicts of interest because
the banks were also trying to sell their own real-estate assets at
the same time that they were trying to unload Sareb's properties
and loans.
In an attempt to diminish those perceived conflicts of interest
and step up the pace of sales, Sareb announced in December that it
had selected major investment firms like Apollo Global Management
LLC (APO), TPG Capital Management and Cerberus Capital Management
LP to market and sell about €41 billion worth of property assets on
its behalf.
Write to Jeannette Neumann at Jeannette.Neumann@wsj.com
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