The Contentious Chamber of the National Court has ruled that Banco Santander must answer for eight fines that were imposed on Banco Popular years ago, as it was the heir to its legal responsibilities after its takeover, according to a judgment handed down in July to which Europa Press has had access.
Specifically, in May 2019, the Ministry of Economy and Business decided to impose eight sanctions on Banco Popular for a series of violations of the law for the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism. The events occurred before Santander rescued Popular when it was resolved.
Together, these eight fines represent a joint sanction of 10.4 million euros. Santander claimed that it should not face these fines because it entails a “violation” of the principle of personal responsibility, since the sanctioned conduct predates the absorption of Santander.
Likewise, the bank led by Ana Botín argued in its appeal before the National Court that it is not true that there was a “business succession” of Banco Popular, stating that there was no relationship between the old Banco Popular, the new Banco Popular and Banco Santander .
Faced with these arguments, the National Court has recalled that the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court on the transferability of the administrative responsibility of companies has made it clear that “it cannot be allowed that the infringer of a norm can, by his sole will, avoid its becoming effective The responsability”.
Thus, the court considers that this would happen in the event that a company decided to annul a sanction through a process of merger, absorption, substitution or voluntary succession.
“Admitting another thesis would be as much as validating fraudulent conduct, to the extent that any company could easily evade its responsibility for the commission of administrative offenses (…) by means of its voluntary decision to legally extinguish its personality, but keeping its patrimony intact, which would be taken over en bloc by another company constituted ‘ad hoc’, through which it would continue to develop the same business within which the administrative offenses were committed”, argued the National Court.
Along these lines, he recalled that Banco Santander itself declared to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) that it would acquire by universal succession the “totality of rights and obligations” of Banco Popular.
Banco Santander has indicated to Europa Press that it will file an appeal against this ruling before the Chamber of the National Court. For the moment, he has been ordered to pay costs.
