CaixaBank has opted for New York as the location for the most recent iteration of its international diversity debate programme, Diversity Talks. The event, held yesterday in the Cervantes Institute in New York, gathered experts from different industries to discuss the global importance of maintaining healthy lifestyle, particularly in the workplace.
The session featured a panel discussion including renowned cardiologist Dr Valentín Fuster, Physician-in-Chief of the Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York, and director general of the Carlos III National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid; Ana Berenguer, Vice President of research and analysis at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC); and Alice M. Greenwald, President and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. The panel discussion was moderated by Juan Manuel Benitez, an anchor on Spectrum News NY1, with the opening remarks delivered by Karolina Miłaszewska, director of CaixaBank’s representative office in New York.
According to Dr Valentín Fuster: “The workplace is the perfect setting for promoting healthy lifestyle. As cardiologists, we are faced with the ongoing challenge of how to move from treating disease, to implementing preventative healthcare techniques. Global businesses should be contributing in order to achieve this goal. Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of premature death around the world, and experts agree that the only way to prevent such illnesses is a total change of lifestyle and a greater awareness of the need to promote healthy lifestyle habits.”
Alice Greenwald added further insights, observing that: “Emotional well-being is critical to all aspects of our lives, including our productivity at work. In all work environments, leaders have a responsibility to see their employees as individuals, not simply as workers or producers. By being attentive and responsive, leaders not only promote empathy and compassion; they encourage greater productivity and deeper loyalty to the organization.”
Adding to this, Ana Berenguer said: “As modern working life continues to intensify, the workplace has grown in our view as an important social centre. Governments and organisations have traditionally located their functions more broadly, both in a geographic and economic sense. Now, as attention increasingly shifts towards the quality of work and the workplace, the focus is sharpening on roles that fulfil and validate the worker. There’s a growing consensus that the workplace environment can have a strong impact on workers; a recent study concluded that employees in organisations with low levels of inclusion and trust were 30-50% more likely to be diagnosed with depression. It’s vital that we pay attention to this, particularly in cities like New York which are characterised by high diversity and density.”
CaixaBank has operated in the United States for three years now, with a representative office in New York, where it offers trade finance, as well as corporate and structured financing services. The representative office focuses its activities around the key sectors of infrastructure, energy, food production and aviation.
Diversity key for CaixaBank
CaixaBank is one of Europe’s pioneering organisations in terms of diversity, and has established a specialist team to coordinate cross-organisation projects that encompass multiple aspects of diversity, including cultural and gender as well as functional and generational diversity. Diversity is also one of the core principals in CaixaBank’s corporate social responsibility programme.
For CaixaBank’s international banking division, diversity is not only an excellent approach to human resources management, but a key aspect of the business model. CaixaBank’s international network specialises in providing advice to Spanish companies undertaking projects overseas, which means that understanding the underlying cultural, social and gender-specific drivers of economic activity is just as important as having specialist international banking capabilities and services.
International presence
CaixaBank’s international network features diverse multicultural teams, responsible for providing close support to the bank’s clients, focusing on the specific requirements in each region. Gender diversity is particularly important: 42% of managerial positions in CaixaBank’s international network are held by women.
Currently, CaixaBank has an integrated international network of 26 operating branches and representative offices in 18 countries. The bank is present in Paris (France), Milan (Italy), Istanbul (Turkey), Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong (China), Dubai (UAE), New Delhi (India), Cairo (Egypt), Santiago de Chile (Chile), Bogotá (Columbia), New York (USA), Singapore, San Paolo (Brazil), Algiers (Algeria), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Lima (Peru).
Additionally, the bank has international branches in Warsaw (Poland), Casablanca, Tangiers and Agadir (Morocco), London (UK) and Frankfurt (Germany). CaixaBank simultaneously maintains agreements with other international banks to facilitate its international operations and the needs of its external businesses and individuals around the world.
CaixaBank also participates in supplying capital to financial entities globally, with whom the bank has developed collaborative strategies. The bank holds an 94% stake in Portuguese bank BPI, and a 9.92% stake of the Austrian operator Erste Bank.
About CaixaBank
CaixaBank is leader in retail banking in Spain, with a 26.7% share among individual customers who make it their main bank. The bank, headed by chairman Jordi Gual, and led by CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, has around 16 million customers in Spain and Portugal, with 5,379 branches, the largest commercial network in the Iberian peninsula. Additionally, CaixaBank holds an 94% stake in the Portuguese bank BPI and 9.92% of the Austrian operator Erste Bank.
CaixaBank also provides financing and specialized services to businesses via an extensive range of corporate banking solutions, including guarantees, bilateral loans, syndicated loans and transactional banking. Currently the bank has an international network comprised of 26 operating branches and representative offices in 18 countries.
CaixaBank has been named "Best Bank in Spain 2017" by the UK magazine Euromoney and New York magazine Global Finance also recognized recently the entity as the "Best Bank in Spain 2018". This year, Euromoney named CaixaBank, the "Best Private Bank in Spain" for the fourth time in a row.
It is also among the most sustainable in the world, according to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and was honored by Euromoney as the Best Bank for CSR in Western Europe.
