MADRID, 31 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The board of directors of Unicaja Banco has decided to appoint Isidro Rubiales as CEO to replace Manuel Menéndez, as reported by the bank in a statement sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

The decision at the top of the Andalusian bank has been made after a process that has lasted several weeks, since Menéndez was dismissed by the council on June 1.

The relief will take place effectively when the "corresponding regulatory authorizations" are obtained. Unicaja Banco has not indicated any time period indicating when this will occur.

Isidro Rubiales has thus prevailed in the search that the bank had been carrying out for a candidate. Until now, the new CEO was in the general management attached to the president, that is, he was the 'right hand' of the current executive president, Manuel Azuaga. He was in charge of control and relationship with supervisors.

This change in the leadership of the bank is included within the process of remodeling the board of directors that the entity has been addressing after its merger by absorption with Liberbank in July 2021.

Specifically, the merger agreement established that, within a period of two years from the operation, that is, before July 30, 2023, the board of directors must modify the governance model of Unicaja Banco, in such a way that the The president of the council, Manuel Azuaga, would leave his executive functions and the CEO, Manuel Menéndez, would be re-evaluated. In addition, this new model must pass the approval of the European Central Bank (ECB), which is the banking supervisor.

Unicaja reported last week that it obtained a net attributable profit in the first half of 2023 of 148 million euros, which represents a decrease of 13% compared to the profits recorded in the same period of the previous year.