Although the covid-19 has made 2020 a fateful year, the year has also left issues to celebrate, such as the presence of women on the boards of directors of the largest companies listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange, which act as a showcase for the rest.

The female weight in the decision-making bodies of the Ibex 35 companies, finally, exceeds the 30% barrier established in the Good Governance Code of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

There are a total of 138 women who occupy 31% of the 445 seats distributed by all the firms of the selective stock market, 12 more than in 2019 after a year-on-year rise of 2.4 points after a last-minute race for getting to the finish line.

After the entry of 25 new female directors in total (the departure of 9 and the loss of two more as a result of the change in the companies that make up the stock market indicator), 21 companies have done their homework and put the gender quota of their boards at that 30% or above.

But still they are below 14, breach the recommendations of the CNMV that precisely have hardened in 2020, imposing a percentage of 40% of face 2022 and pointing more high directives listed.

The calculation includes changes to the composition of the board proposed at shareholders meetings already called, but not yet held. Thus, new directors of Acerinox, Aena, Amadeus, Indra and Merlin are pending to be appointed to the board.

Among those that suspend, a company, Telefónica, touches 30%; another five (Acciona, Colonial, Meliá, Viscofán and Banco Sabadell) are three points away. Enagás, Naturgy, Amadeus and Bankia, between 25% and 23%; while Cie Automotive, ACS, Ferrovial and Solaria appear as the worst in the class, with percentages that vary from 21% to 17%.

On the contrary, Red Eléctrica, after the appointment of Beatriz Corredor as non-executive president of the entity, is positioned as the only completely equal company on the Ibex, with the same number of women and men. Caixabank follows, ahead of Banco Santander.

They are the three companies that would comply with the new recommendations of the stock market supervisor today of the entire selective.

The entity that José Ignacio Goirigolzarri will preside over after the merger with Bankia will go from having six advisers to just five , from 43% female presence to 33%. Indra, Bankinter, Cellnex, Inditex, PharmaMar, Iberdrola and Merlin Properties are among those that are closer to 40% where equity is established.

There are companies that make sufficient efforts to recruit female talent for their advice and others that do not, says Krista Walochik, a partner at the high-ranking recruitment firm Talengo, which has tackled more processes in 2020 “in the race to reach 30% ”.

This expert believes that these two speeds will also be transferred to the renewed recommendations of the CNMV, which has given time for the mandates of the current administrators to expire.

Eugènia Bieto, Endesa director appointed in the year that has just ended, nevertheless thinks that the Ibex photo of 2023 will be totally different because listed companies have made it one of their objectives to achieve equality. Another different thing will be the progress in the direction, which is where the real problem lies, he adds.

Naturgy, the company that in recent years had the worst portrayed in terms of equality, has appointed two women to its governing body in 2020, leaving the climax of the class. Isabel Estapé is one of them .

This notary public, who is also part of the board of Criteria, acknowledges that “I am very sorry to join boards of directors like Naturgy because of the fees, when my whole life has been otherwise”. The Sunday administrator contrary to positive discrimination by law indicates that in a few months a fourth advisor will join the energy company board.

The energy company chaired by Francisco Reynés, Endesa and Almirall are the three organizations that have incorporated two administrators to their decision-making bodies in 2020.

Just the opposite of what happened at Iberdrola, which loses one of its six female directors, being the only one from the Ibex which falls back part of the path walked in parity, although it meets the recommended levels by far, it goes from leading the classification with a percentage close to 43% to standing at 36%.

The weight of women in the large listed companies is increasing, says Tobías Martínez, CEO of Cellnex, because companies have taken their equality policies seriously. Martínez does not hide that the CNMV’s recommendations have been an incentive for this.

In fact, 14 of the 35 Ibex companies have increased the seats occupied by administrators during the year that has just ended. “We have been very slow due to the internal resistance of the councils, which are looking for candidates among their close people, and until the regulation has pressed no more women have been incorporated,” supports a counselor who requests anonymity.

Banco Sabadell is one of the entities that has recruited female talent and Mireia Giné , independent director of the entity, has been launched in 2020 as administrator.

Aware that the priorities in the governing bodies of listed companies have changed due to the emergence of covid-19 to focus more on systematizing risk analysis, the sustainability of the business model and new opportunities, Giné believes that they are also focusing in avoiding the loss of human capital.

Analyzing the effectiveness of teleworking and paying special attention to ensuring that women remain in the front line, since they are the ones who have suffered the most from the pandemic by having to take care of their children.

“Many of the strategic plans have been ruined by the pandemic. For all large companies it is being a challenge and, as their results are worse, the boards have to dedicate more time to the new priorities, which go through redoing the strategy ”, explains Estapé.

The autonomous communities will need more money than ever to finance themselves next year : about 50,000 million euros, according to the estimates of the Afi consultancy.

This amount includes both the maturities and repayments of the debt that the regions must satisfy in 2021 as well as the largest deficit that they will have to finance due to the pandemic, 1.1% of GDP according to the Government’s forecasts.

The figure also includes the bill incurred during the previous financial crisis, a burden that continues to weigh on the autonomies after more than a decade.

Spend, spend and spend. The slogan was clear: in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, with restrictions on activity and in view of the need to strengthen health systems and public benefits, we must not skimp on outlays.

This maxim has permeated the policies of all the major economies of the world, which have mobilized millionaire resources to prevent the virus from causing structural damage to the productive fabric.

Spain has also jumped on the expansive bandwagon and, for now, the countercyclical measures are plugging the bleeding. But the scar that the pandemic will leave on public accounts will be deep and will take time to heal, since it will not be easy or fast to get rid of the mountain of debt and deficit that the Public Administrations have accumulated to face the biggest blow since the Civil War. .

The recently approved Budgets foresee net Treasury emissions of 110,000 million in 2021. This figure, which is always calculated with caution based on estimates of new expenses, income or needs of the communities, will also take into account next year arrival of European aid and will be added to the huge amount of liabilities already put into circulation this year.

According to the Government, the debt-to-GDP ratio will go from 95.5% in 2019 to 118.8% in 2020, the highest in a century. Even so, the forecast is that the average cost of debt will continue to fall next year thanks to ultra-low rates, which will prevent it from becoming, for the moment, an unsustainable burden.

The communities, in the front line to contain the health emergency, will need more than 50,000 million to finance themselves in 2021, according to provisional calculations by International Financial Analysts (Afi).

Some 36,600 million correspond to maturities and amortizations, a figure similar to that of 2020, 14,000 million to cover the largest deficit and about 900 million to the negative settlements of 2008 and 2009 that the regions dragged from the previous financial crisis.

Catalonia, the Valencian Community and Andalusia will be, for yet another year, the regions that will require the most resources in 2021; Navarra, Cantabria and La Rioja the least. “It is a historical record of gross debt, but the deficit component is uncertain and will depend on the economic evolution,” says César Cantalapiedra, partner of the consulting firm.

The Government, in line with the decision of Brussels to freeze the Stability and Growth Pact in the face of the virulence of the crisis, has suspended the fiscal rules for 2020 and 2021. Instead of approving a mandatory path – which marks the maximum limit of imbalance -, has set non-binding reference rates.

In the case of the communities, this is 2.2% of GDP by 2021, although the Treasury has promised to assume half of the gap through an extraordinary transfer of 13,486 million.

This year, communities have enjoyed an unprecedented flow of money to ensure critical services without cash strain. In fact, the Treasury kept the amount of installments on account – which advances to the regions based on expected income – calculated before the outbreak of the pandemic, 115,662 million.

To this figure must be added other extraordinary transfers, such as the covid-19 fund of 16,000 million that will not have to be reimbursed to the State. In 2021, regional financing will provide slightly less resources (113,729 million), but the difference will be more than compensated with the aforementioned provision to cover part of the deficit and other funds from European aid.

The adjustment will come in 2022, when the accounts will have to be balanced. The current financing model foresees that every two years it is reviewed if the communities received more or less resources than they owed, depending on whether the income has been higher or lower than the forecasts.

If these have fallen short, the regions have a positive settlement; on the contrary, if the performance has been worse than expected, they return the excess received to the State.

The fact that the Government kept the tap open in 2020 – the resources were calculated based on a rise in GDP of 1.6%, when the fall now forecast by the Executive is 11.2% – will imply that in 2022 the communities return to the State what they have received too much.

Airef has already put numbers to this reimbursement: about 5,000 million. The question is how that money will be refunded. In the case of the Great Recession, the repayment was stretched over time, and therefore in 2021 the regions continue to pay the negative settlements of 2008 and 2009.

Xi Jinping is not used to giving instructions in vain. In September of last year, the Chinese leader stressed the importance of making “efforts to unite the private sector around the Party”, with the aim of “promoting its healthy development.”

These words began an antitrust campaign in the digital sector aimed at limiting both structural risks and the power of its actors. The big hit has been Alibaba , the first technology company in the country and the ninth company in the world by market capitalization.

The first blow came in mid-November, when the authorities halted the Ant Group IPO , destined to be the largest in history, with just 48 hours notice. The financial services firm was already poised to rake in $ 34.5 billion (€ 29.5 billion) through a simultaneous debut in the Hong Kong and Shanghai parks , an amount that would dwarf Saudi Aramco’s $ 29 billion peak. in December 2019 .

Ant is one of the most innovative organizations in the world , to the point of having no equivalent outside of China. Its primary service is Alipay, an electronic payment platform with a huge social implantation. This represents the gateway to a colossal ecosystem fed by the huge amount of data generated by each transaction.

Ant can thus offer personalized loans, investments or insurance. The firm is proud to use a scheme named 310 : when contracting any financial product, 3 minutes are enough to fill out a form, which is approved in 1 second by the intervention of 0 human beings. Alibaba still owns a third of the company that was once its subsidiary.

The mathematics of its IPO would have put Ant in a position to outperform the first state banks. With the ambition and the capacity, in addition, to control a significant percentage of the national credit; thanks to the ubiquity of its telephone application in the 1,560 million mobile phones in the country and the simplicity of its services.

The Government understood that this possibility posed an intolerable risk, and at the last minute interrupted its dairy accounts, modifying the legal requirements.

Since then the corrections have been constant. The latest took place this week, when the People’s Bank of China provided a new public slap on the wrist in the form of a statement .

After a meeting with Ant managers, the central bank assured in its text that it must “return to its origins” as an electronic payments company and “rectify errors” made “in key business areas”, even demanding “an implementation schedule ”.

Ant, with his head down, has already taken steps to demonstrate his compliance, such as limiting the credit available to his users. Eric Jing, its CEO, has assured that he “listens carefully” to criticism from “regulators and customers.”

The mother house has not been unscathed either. Last week the State Administration for Market Regulation announced the opening of an investigation against Alibaba, accused of monopolistic practices.

Provincial authorities in Zhejiang, where the tech giant is based, have already searched its headquarters, questioned employees and requisitioned documents. As a result of its collision with the Party, Alibaba has lost almost a quarter of its share price since the end of October, equivalent to the evaporation of 260 billion dollars (213 billion euros).

Government harassment also has an ad hominem dimension . What happened shows the fall from grace of Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and one of the best-known faces in the country. “If the Government needs Alipay, I will give it to them,” he said solicitously in 2013.

Just before Ant’s failed IPO – of which he is the majority shareholder – he unchecked himself with controversial statements criticizing the legislation. financially and their “pawn shop” mentality. Whoever was the richest man in China has seen how in recent months his wealth has decreased from 51,000 million euros to 40,000, according to data from Bloomberg.

The future is not rosy for the businessman and philanthropist: the authorities have instructed him not to leave the country, according to different media.

Despite the fact that the Chinese model remains nominally communist, private companies have been the engine of its economy for many years. These have gone from adding 443,000 in 1996 to 15.6 million in 2018, to constitute 84% of the total.

One of the items on Xi’s domestic agenda is to increase the Party’s control over them and align them with state priorities. The first step was the issuance in mid-September by the Central Committee of the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party of a document entitled “Opinion on Strengthening the Work of the United Front of Private Economy in the New Era.”

Its purpose was “to enhance the focus of wisdom and strength of entrepreneurs in the goal and mission of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” To do this, he aspired to create “a column of reliable and available businessman at key moments.”

The government targeted the digital sector in this way. Not only because it is a strategic area, but also because it is one of the industries whose actors have accumulated greater social preponderance thanks to lax regulation. But that is over.

In November, the competent authorities published the initial draft of new antitrust guidelines on the Internet. Two weeks later, the Central Economic Work Conference, the annual meeting of this body, in charge of setting the course in financial and banking matters, concluded.

The resulting document contained an epigraph in which the institution agreed to strengthen control over financial services and electronic commerce companies, with the intention of “strengthening antitrust and preventing a disorderly expansion of capital.”

This resulted in two rounds of fines. The first in mid-December against Alibaba itself, China Literatura – of which Tencent is the majority shareholder – and Hive Box for “not reporting on past agreements for the evaluation of the authorities.”

The second this week, due to “irregular pricing.” The victims on this occasion were JD – the second e-commerce company in the country -, Tmall – owned, again, by Alibaba – and Vishop.

All the sanctions were set at 500,000 yuan (62,700 euros), a modest amount despite exceeding the maximum established by the 2008 Antitrust Law. This step, however, marks the first time that institutions have acted against Internet companies, anticipating a growing trend that goes to show that in China nothing is above the Party. And this, in turn, is increasingly indistinguishable from Xi Jinping’s word.