Marc Armengol, new director of operations and technology at Banco Sabadell

First decisions of César González-Bueno at Banco Sabadell. The executive has reconfigured the bank's organizational chart and has incorporated Marc Armengol, an executive with a long career in the entity, into the management committee. He has been appointed Director of Operations and Technology. Carles Ventura (Director of Business Banking and the commercial network) and José Nieto de la Cierva (Director of Corporate Banking) have also been ratified and strengthened in their positions, while the upcoming incorporation of a high-level executive external to the bank has been announced, who will be responsible for leading the new Retail Banking division. Until this signing is announced, González-Bueno himself ---a former ING executive--- will take charge of this area.

Marc Armengol joined Sabadell in 2002 and has always been linked to the areas of organization and information technologies. He is considered an insider, as he has been for many years the right-hand man of Miguel Montes, one of the key executives of the bank chaired by Josep Oliu. Precisely, in the new organizational chart, Armengol will now share the management committee with Montes, the entity's Director of Organization and Resources.

After holding various positions at the Sant Cugat (Barcelona) headquarters related to the bank's transformation and organization, Armengol was expatriated to Miami in 2014 when he was appointed Director of Operations for Sabadell in America, under the command of Fernando Pérez-Hickman. When the Catalan bank sold its banking business in Florida in 2017, both Pérez-Hickman and Armengol left Sabadell to work for the new owner, Iberiabank.

Even so, only a year later, at the end of 2018, Sabadell brought Armengol back and placed him on the management committee of its British bank, TSB, which was suffering a serious crisis caused by IT problems resulting from the migration to a new technological platform. His mission was to bring order and help the new CEO, Debbie Crosbie.

The executive currently held the position of Corporate Strategy Director ---corporate strategy director--- of TSB and now leaves London to return to the bank's headquarters in Catalonia as head of technology and operations, where he will report directly to the new CEO.

New bank structure in Spain

After receiving the certificate of suitability from the European Central Bank, González-Bueno's appointment as the bank's chief executive, replacing Jaume Guardiola, became effective this week. His functions, however, will be broader, as the change also implies that, from now on, Josep Oliu will occupy a non-executive chairmanship. This move implies another consequence: the hitherto powerful board secretary general, María José García Beato ---a person of Oliu's utmost trust--- will leave her secretarial duties on March 31, although she will remain part of the board of directors, with the rank of non-executive director. Banco Sabadell's communication director, Gabriel Martínez, will report directly to González-Bueno; until now he depended on García-Beato.

The new CEO has reconfigured the bank's structure in Spain with the creation of three major divisions: Retail Banking, Business and Network Banking, and Corporate Banking. The first area, which will incorporate a new external general manager, will encompass all businesses linked to products offered to individual clients, i.e., financing, insurance, savings, investment, and private banking services.

The second area will have Carlos Ventura as general manager, who maintains the leadership he already had over the bank's entire branch network ---structured into six territorial directorates---, in addition to being responsible for institutional banking, business banking, and SME and self-employed banking. José Nieto also maintains the direction of the third business leg, Corporate Banking, which includes the areas of capital markets, structured finance, large companies, treasury, and venture capital. In parallel, Debbie Crosbie remains at the helm of TSB, and Francisco Lira ---a recent appointment--- of the Mexican subsidiary.

Banco Sabadell's top management is completed with a new hire from Bankia, Leopoldo Alvear, who is the new chief financial officer replacing Tomás Varela, who has left the bank along with Guardiola. There are no changes in the rest of the positions: Director of Risks (Xavier Comerma), Organization and Resources (Miquel Montes), Regulation and Control (David Vegara), and Internal Audit (Nuria Lázaro).