Francisco Rodriguez: BBVA Chief

Francisco Rodriguez was born on October 19, 1944 in Chantada, Lugu, Spain. He graduated from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1970 with a degree in Economics and Business Sciences. 

Francisco’s first job was as a computer programmer at an IT company in 1964.  His interest then shifted to finance and he left the computer industry to become a stockbroker in 1983. Francisco ranked first among the candidates who took the stockbroker exam in 1980.

In four years time he earned enough money to start his own brokerage firm, FG Inversiones Burtsátiles. It was the first and largest independent brokerage firm in the country. Francisco sold this company to Merrill Lynch in 1996 for $30 million greatly increasing his wealth.

His brokerage business also allowed him to establish connections with people in the political arena. In 1996 a new government was elected in Spain. In the process Francisco was appointed as chairman of the Argentaria banking group. The government chose Gonzalez to complete the privatization of Argentaria which was formed in 1991 in a merger with government-controlled banks in Spain. The government still owned 25 percent of the group which had 16,000 workers.

Francisco instituted far-reaching reforms in the banking group. It included merging three main units, refinancing its expensive assets, reducing costs, as well as taking the painful action of cutting jobs.

A major event happened in the Spanish banking industry when two of the largest banks, Banco Santander and Banco Central Hispano merged.  This convinced Francisco to merge with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBV) in 1999 as not to be left behind.

Francisco became the cochairman of the newly formed BBVA sharing responsibilities with Emilio Ybarra who was the CEO of BBV.  A serious crisis occurred in 2000 when it was found out that BBV had been involved in illegal activities such as money laundering, slush funds, and bribery. The illegal activities involved BBV before the merger. Francisco took actions to correct the wrongdoings; it also led to the resignation of the cochairman and other employees.  There were 27 person indicted in connection with the scandal.

This left Francisco in sole command of BBVA. Since then he has pushed for the expansion of the bank’s operation overseas. With his computer programming background he has also championed the use of technology to improve banking efficiency and profit.