DIALOGUE
WITH THE
CHAIRMAN
“THE MORE
YOU DO FOR
SOCIETY,
THE MORE
YOU GET BACK
FROM IT”
Francisco González, Chairman of BBVA
This year, the BBVA has decided to replace the usual
“Chairman’s Letter” that traditionally heads its
Annual Corporate Responsibility Report with an
interview with the Chairman of the BBVA, Francisco
González. The interviewer is Gustavo Herrero, an
internationally renowned academic in the area of
corporate responsibility and executive director of
Harvard Business School’s Latin American Research
Center. González and Herrero speak about the
complex current economic and financial situation,
its implications for BBVA’s policy on corporate
responsibility and the Group's groundbreaking
approach to financial inclusion, through the BBVA
Microfinance Foundation.
The interview, a sizeable extract of which is
reproduced below, was held via telepresence in
Madrid and Buenos Aires on 17 February 2009.
G.H.: Mr González, my first question would be:
what, in your opinion, are the causes of the financial
crisis we are undergoing all over the world?
F.G.: There are many different causes, but if I had to
sum up, I’d say there are two essential factors. Firstly,
international capital markets were not being properly
regulated. Depending on the sector you work in,
regulation has been either too lax or quite simply
non-existent. And secondly, you had the vast amount
of leverage being used by certain entities —a reckless
amount, which in some institutions was probably
associated with excessive greed.
Those were the two most important causes, but there
were other factors too, such as very low interest rates
and a certain disregard for liquidity. There came a
point when people believed liquidity was unlimited.
The net result of all of these different factors is that
this is probably one of the worst crises we’ve ever seen.
G.H.: Do you believe the worst is over or are we still
going to be talking of complex situations from this
point on?
F.G.: To be honest, we don't know, because this is
a very profound crisis and it’s going to last quite a
bit longer than people originally thought. The entire
world is now in recession. This is a global crisis, the
first in living memory. There are some exceptions,
of course, essentially in Latin America, where some
countries have not yet gone into recession.
How the US reacts will be very important; it's the
world's largest economy, and they’re injecting huge
sums of money into it. How the States emerges from
this crisis will determine how other regions perform.
If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say we should bottom
DIALOGUE WITH THE CHAIRMAN
Corporate Responsibility Report 2008
5
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