With the highest quorum in recent years, over 71%, according to the secretary of the board, Miquel Roca, Banco Sabadell has gathered shareholders today at the first post-failed BBVA OPA meeting. A meeting that has served as a farewell from the CEO who has been for the last more than five years, César González-Bueno; and a welcome to the new one, Marc Armengol, a professional with more than 25 years of experience in the company. And it had an unusual ending for board meetings, a refreshment as an shareholder requested a year ago, recalled the bank's president, Josep Oliu.

I don't know if César González-Bueno, 65, CEO of Banc Sabadell, is a Beatles fan, but he's copied them by resigning at the height of their success. "He could have stayed on as long as he wanted, but he preferred to hand over the reins to someone with a promising career ahead of him," I'm told. After five years, he's leaving—he says—of his own volition and in agreement with Chairman Josep Oliu, his comrade in arms and through the tensions during the BBVA takeover bid, which they both sacked, convinced he's done his job.