'Caja' director fired after FROB regulators discover book-fudging

The Bank of Spain has fired the chief director at Caja Mediterráneo (CAM), which was taken over by the central bank earlier this summer, official sources revealed on Wednesday.

María Dolores Amorós was temporarily suspended in August after bank examiners discovered that she had presented inflated figures about the savings bank's financial health to regulators last March. According to the bank restructuring fund (FROB), Amorós listed the caja's first-quarter profits at 40 million euros. In June, when FROB regulators looked at the books, they found that CAM was actually in the red by 1.13 billion euros. Her firing, without any benefits, was effective from Wednesday.

The Bank of Spain took over CAM on July 22 and injected 2.8 billion euros with an additional three-billion-euro credit line. According to sources, regulators were planning to take legal action against Amorós, who was not getting any salary or benefits since she was suspended. She is still not exempt from any legal responsibility, they say.

A business school graduate from the University of Alicante, Amorós had held different positions in CAM since 1998. In November 2010, she was promoted to chief director replacing Roberto López Abad.