The recent stress test by CEBS (The Committee of European Banking Supervisors) was carried out to assess the overall resilience of the EU banking sector and the banks’ ability to absorb further possible shocks on credit and market risks. Tests were carried out on 91 European banks, 26 of them from Spain, which hold 26% of Europe's banking assets. Results of the CEBS test were published on July 23, 2010 and Bank March, which has been in the same family's hands since it was started in 1926 by Juan March Ordinas, proved to have the highest solvency rating.
Imprisoned for Smuggling, Fraud and Bribery
Born in 1880 into a peasant family on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Juan March began his enterprising career smuggling tobacco and dealing on the black market on both the Allied and German sides in World War I. His fortune continued to expand under the monarchy. But in 1930, under a Republican government, he was convicted of smuggling, tax fraud and bribery and sentenced to imprisonment. After 16 months he bribed his way to freedom, escaping to Gibralter, where under British law he was safe from extradition. A 1934 biography by Manuel De Benavides, detailing his nefarious activities, was titled The Last Pirate in the Mediterranean (El último pirata del mediterraneo).
Friend of Dictator Franco
March's opportunity to return came with the Nationalist uprising of 1936, for which he financed the flight of General Franco from Tenerife to North Africa, and the airlifting of troops from there to southern Spain to start the civil war that would lead to Franco's 36-year dictatorship.
In 2008 research in the US and UK by historian Pere Ferrer, published in his book Juan March: The Most Mysterious Man in the World, revealed that March had been given $10 million by Churchill's government to distribute to Franco's top generals to persuade them not to join their fellow fascists, Germany, and stay out of the war.
Last Robber Baron
Though seldom in the headlines, March was in the news in 1961, the year before his death in a motor accident near Madrid, aged 81, when he was being sued for acquiring the Barcelona Traction Power and Light Company for just a fraction of its value. In an article titled "Iberian Croesus" Time Magazine of April 14, 1961, described him as "last of the robber barons" and "the world's most mysterious and most powerful billionaire." By then March controlled Spain's tobacco and gasoline monopolies, as well as a number of key industries. He also had a 25% interest in Société de Banque Suisse. "I have no need of banks," the magazine reported him as saying. "The bankers need me."
With his millions, March built March Palace in the Mallorcan captital, Palma, and set up the Fondación Juan March to fund arts and scientific endeavours. His youngest son turned the family palace into the Museo de Arte Español Contemporáneo, the Spanish Contemporary Art Museum.
Both the bank and foundation are still family-run, by four grandchildren of the founder. Entirely respectable and topping the bank stress test, there is no evidence that the March empire was founded by a "pirate."
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