Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chair Sheila Bair has been named a director at Banco Santander, whose subsidiary is active in Puerto Rico.
Bair, who was FDIC chair from June 2006 to July 2011, plans to help the bank strengthen risk management, she told Bloomberg News in an email.
Banco Santander is Spain's biggest bank. The securities unit of its Puerto Rico subsidiary Santander BanCorp underwrote $579 million in Puerto Rico bonds in 2010 and $1.918 billion in those bonds in 2011. The one offering of Puerto Rico's public sector in the bond market in 2013 was from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. Santander Securities was a junior underwriter on the $673 million deal.
Standard & Poor's put Santander BanCorp's BBB-minus/A-3 issuer credit ratings on negative watch on Friday. It cited the potential for the deterioration of loan performance concerning loans to the Puerto Rico government and municipal governments. S&P said that the bank may have substantial loans to these governments.
Bair's appointment as a director is subject to shareholder approval.
