The prolific writer from Garraf who helped found the Iese

For many decades, the global oil industry was dominated by a group of oil companies known as "the seven sisters," a magic number that was repeated fractally within the Spanish banking sector, when the oligopoly that controlled it was made up of seven banks, the so-called "big seven." Aside from this informal lobby, in 1977 the credit institution sector founded an association called the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), which during its initial phase (1977-1990) was chaired by a Catalan from Garraf: Rafael Termes Carreró. Termes' presence in the banking association was explained by his role at Banco Popular, where he had served as CEO since 1966.

This industrial engineer was born in Sitges, the son of a businessman who owned a shoe company and an ice factory called Canigó. At just 22 years old, our protagonist was already a full member of Opus Dei, a militancy that marked his career. He entered the banking world through Crèdit Andorrà, of which he was one of the driving forces, along with the Church, in 1950. After participating for five years in the governing bodies of the Pyrenean entity, he joined the regional board of Banco Popular, which would be the beginning of a long and intense professional life. As a result of this transfer, Banco Popular became a key shareholder of Crèdit Andorrà with 15% of the capital, the stake held by Termes. The next positions he held were those of president of the regional board of Popular, in 1960, and member of the bank's board of directors, four years later. During this period, one of the spin-offs most successful of Opus Dei, the Iese (Institute of Advanced Business Studies) business school, founded in 1958 and with Termes as one of its main promoters.

His work at the AEB, and the very birth of the association, was closely related to the banking crisis that the Spanish government experienced in the 1970s, a collapse that led to the closure of a large number of institutions. As is often explained, it was the then deputy governor of the Bank of Spain, Mariano Rubio, who asked the Popular Party (PP) to have Termes lead the association in the face of the challenge posed by such a worrying crisis. His tenure at the helm of the AEB lasted until 1990, when he resigned. During all these years, although he remained CEO of the Popular Party, his duties were restricted. His time at the bank coincided with the presidency of the Valls-Taberners, Catalans and members of Opus Dei like himself, but with whom he had some problems coexisting due to their differing approaches to business.

Man of reflection

As previously mentioned, he reached the pinnacle of his career at Popular in 1966, when he was appointed CEO. Shortly before, he had been involved in the creation of what is now the Spanish Institute of Financial Analysts (1965), and in the following years, he would play a key role in the launch of the CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations) and the Association for the Progress of Management.

But Termes was not only a man of action, but also of reflection, for he left a significant mark on the theoretical corpus of economic thought. He wrote a large number of books, among which the most notable for their influence are The creative power of risk; Capitalism and ethics; From Statism to Freedom: Perspectives from Eastern Europe; From the Bank: Three Decades of Spanish Economic Life; Anthropology of Capitalism: An Open Debate; The causes of unemployment,and From freedomHe was also the director of the collective work White Paper on the Role of the State in the Spanish EconomyIn most of his writings he made his liberal ideology clear and, in addition, he promoted knowledge of the work of Friedrich von Hayek in the State.

At the time of his death, he had accumulated a large number of recognitions and affiliations, including membership in the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and the Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences, knighthood in the French Legion of Honor, and the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Wise.