Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez, in charge of the central bank from 2006 to 2012, was charged over a failed listing that saw small investors lose millions of euros in investment, as was the former president of Spain's CNMV market regulator Julio Segura, a court order revealed.
Bankia was bailed out in May 2012 less than a year after its listing, and is accused of misrepresenting its accounts ahead of the flotation.
Today, Spain's top-level National Court said it had ordered the investigating magistrate to charge Fernandez Ordonez, Segura and six other central bank and CNMV officials at the time -- an order it insisted was final and could not be appealed.
But it is as yet unclear exactly what the charges are.
The National Court validated conclusions made by prosecutors who concluded that when "an unviable entity has been listed on the stock market, its administrators or auditor should not shoulder all the responsibility."
The investigating magistrate had initially decided not to charge Fernandez Ordonez and Segura, but Spain's CIC union appealed the decision, leading to Monday's ruling by the National Court.
In its court order, it laid out allegations by the plaintiffs who claim that an investigating team at Spain's central bank had warned repeatedly "that the group was unviable and that... The listing should not be approved."
Bankia was created in 2010 at the height of Spain's severe economic crisis from the merger of seven troubled regional savings banks.
Accordingly, the state-rescued lender has had to pay out millions of euros in compensation to small investors.
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