José Sevilla will leave the chairmanship of Unicaja when his current mandate expires next April, the Málaga-based lender has confirmed, after he informed the board he would not put himself forward for another term. The decision, disclosed to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), sets in motion an early succession process at one of Spain's mid-sized listed banks.
Sevilla, a former chief executive of Bankia, took the chair in April 2024 with a narrow remit: to steady an institution still bruised by the governance battles that followed its merger with Liberbank. He will remain in his non-executive role until the ordinary shareholders' meeting formalises the handover.
A mandate built around calm
His appointment two years ago was designed to close a chapter of internal conflict. The bank had been shaken in March 2023 when a group of shareholders aligned with the Unicaja Banking Foundation blocked the ratification of two independent directors, a move widely read as an attempt to reassert local control over the entity.
Sevilla's arrival, alongside chief executive Isidro Rubiales, restored a working balance between the board and management. The 2024 shareholders' meeting passed without the acrimony of the previous year, and the tandem has since kept the bank on a quieter footing.
Unicaja said the chairman's decision allows it to trigger its Succession Policy ahead of schedule, giving the board time to identify a replacement with what it described as adequate institutional safeguards. The board has formally recorded its gratitude for Sevilla's "valuable services" during his tenure.
What comes next
The bank has not named a candidate. Under the succession framework, the appointments committee is expected to lead the search, with the aim of presenting a nominee well before the April meeting. Until then, Sevilla continues to chair the board in a non-executive capacity, and Rubiales remains in charge of day-to-day operations.
The transition comes at a sensitive moment for Spanish banking, where mid-sized lenders face pressure on margins and consolidation speculation persists. Unicaja, with its strong footprint in Andalucía and other regions, has been viewed as both a potential acquirer and a target in a sector that has already seen major mergers.
For now, the priority inside the bank is continuity. Sevilla's departure is orderly rather than abrupt, and the early start to the succession process is intended to prevent the kind of boardroom friction that marked the Liberbank integration.
Investors will watch the appointments committee closely for signals about the bank's strategic direction. A chairman drawn from the existing board would suggest continuity; an external figure could point to a broader reset. Either way, the decision will shape Unicaja's posture in a Spanish market where scale and regional roots matter as much as ever.
