Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo (born 18 March 1949) is a businessman and politician who served in the Council of Ministers of Spain from 1996 to 2004.

[6] On 23 February 2017, Rato was found guilty of embezzlement of about 100,000 euros (in the so-called case "black cards") and sentenced to 4½ years' imprisonment.

He is the great-grandson of politician Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro y Díaz-Argüelles and the son of businessman Ramón Rato who was jailed in 1967 for tax evasion to Switzerland through his Banco Siero,[11] and of Aurora Figaredo Sela.

[12][13] Rato attended a Jesuit school Our Lady of Remembrance College, Madrid before studying law in the Complutense University.

In 1975 Rato became involved in the family business, first in Fuensanta, an Asturian mineral water company, and then in two Madrid construction firms.

In 1977 Rato joined the newly formed Popular Alliance (AP), a party containing former ministers of Franco, founded by Manuel Fraga, a close personal friend of his father.

In October 1982 he won election as an AP member of the Congress of Deputies for Cádiz in spite of having no connection to this Andalucian town.

The 1982 election handed a loss to the AP, and marked the beginning of the long rule of the PSOE and Felipe González.

During these years he also continued his business career in Aguas de Fuensanta; having previously been the CEO of the company from 1978 to 1982, he served as chairman from 1985 to 1991.

Although the core capital ratio was 10,4%, the Popular Party Government planned to lend about 8 billion euro to the bank to increase its solvency, as was done before throughout Europe (e.g. ING and Northern Rock crisis).

After a hearing 17 October 2014, the Spanish High Court judge Fernando Andreu assigned civil responsibility for the credit card abuse to Rodrigo Rato and Miguel Blesa.

[25] In 2020, the High Court acquitted Rato in a separate trial over falsifying accounts and other charges in the listing of Bankia when he was the bank’s chairman.

[26] In December 2024, Rato was sentenced to a four-year jail term over tax crimes, corruption and money laundering committed in Spain during his tenure as head of Bankia.