• Key improvements were made to the cost-to-income ratio and profitability on the back of strong income generation capacity (gross margin up 11.3% to €7,726 million), the drive to reduce and streamline recurring expenses (-1.2% on a like-for-like basis) and the decline in loan loss provisions (€1,593 million, down 23.6%).
• Customer funds stood at €296,599 million (+9.1%) while loans totalled €206,437 million (+4.7%), following the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU and the declining pace of loan deleveraging. New loan production continued to increase, with mortgage loans up 57%, consumer loans up 48% and loans to companies up 23%.
• In 2015, CaixaBank Asset Management(mutual funds) and VidaCaixa (life insurance and pension plans), both fully-owned subsidiaries of CaixaBank, topped the tables in investment and pension products, with upwards of €108,000 million under management across a wide range of investment funds, savings insurance and pension plans.
• The Bank has maintained its capital strength, reporting a fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 11.6%. According to the phased-in implementation timetable, regulatory CET1 stands at 12.7% while the total capital ratio is 15.7%, ahead of all the other main financial institutions in Spain. Bank liquidity totalled €54,090 million.
• The different programmes and initiatives of the ”la Caixa” Group aimed at providing access to social housing (affordable housing through charity-assisted renting, social renting and the Social Housing Fund) currently have upwards of 33,000 homes available to low-income members of society.
CaixaBank, the number one retail bank in Spain with Isidro Fainé as Chairman and Gonzalo Gortázar as CEO, reported net attributable profit of €814 million in 2015, up 31.4% year on year.
This sound performance was driven by the strength of the banking business (gross margin up 11.3% to €7,726 million), in addition to the efforts made to reduce and streamline recurring expenses (-1.2% on a like-for-like basis) and the decline in loan loss provisions (€1,593 million, down 23.6%).
CaixaBank’s existing strong commercial activity was given a further boost in 2015 with the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU, which has driven up net interest income (+4.8%), fee and commission income (+10.3%), customer lending (+4.7%) and customer funds (+9.1%).
Asset quality indicators also fared well, with the NPL ratio dropping to 7.9% in the quarter.
At 31 December 2015, profit from the banking and insurance business amounted to €1,606 million This figure includes a number of one-off impacts resulting from the acquisition and integration of Barclays Bank, SAU and the labour agreement signed in the second quarter. Excluding these impacts, return on tangible equity (ROTE) stood at 10.1%.
Other operating income and expenses for the fourth quarter included the expense arising from the contributions paid to the Deposit Guarantee Fund and to the National Resolution Fund for a combined total of €278 million.
Managing cost efficiency was a strategic focal point in 2015 and will continue to be so in the coming years. In 2016, a total of €189 million is expected to be captured in synergies with Barclays Bank, SAU (€115 million in 2015) and in savings deriving from the labour agreement.
CaixaBank consolidates its leadership of the Spanish market
The commercial strength of the CaixaBank Group and the acquisition of Barclays Bank, SAU have enabled sustained growth in market shares for all the main financial products and services. Furthermore, Euromoney named CaixaBank "Best Bank in Spain 2015", while Forrester Research awarded it the title of world’s best bank when it comes to mobile banking services.
CaixaBank remains the leading bank in Spain among individual customers, with a market penetration of 28.3%, and also leads the way in online banking (4.8 million customers) and mobile banking (2.8 million).
Commercial strategies aimed at specific business segments, such as AgroBank, CaixaNegocios and HolaBank, saw further consolidation during the year. Moreover, the Bank recently announced the launch of imaginBank, Spain’s first mobile-only bank.
On the commercial front, the Bank continues to focus efforts on attracting and retaining customers, as shown by the 782,000 payrolls secured in 2015 (up 30% year on year), increasing the Bank’s payroll market share to 24.9% (+1.8pp in 2015) for a total of more than 3,200,000 payrolls.
Customer loans and advances, gross, stood at €206,437 million (+4.7%) following the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU and the declining pace of loan deleveraging. For the year as a whole, the performing portfolio excluding real estate developers grew by 7.7% (up €13,231 million). Organic change (-4.0%) was impacted by the significant reduction in organic exposure to the real estate development sector (-33.6% in 2015).
New loans were up 27% year on year, with mortgage loans up 57%, consumer loans up 48% and loans to companies up 23%.
CaixaBank’s strong market shares for working capital financing products (19.8% for factoring and reverse factoring and 15.9% for commercial loans) illustrate its commitment to providing credit for the productive system. The total loan market share was 16.4%.
Total customer funds stood at €296,599 million, up €24,841 million (+9.1% in 2015 with a +3.2% organic change). As in previous quarters, the performance of customer funds was driven by the shift in savings towards off-balance sheet products through a broad and diversified product range. The market share for customer deposits was 15.3%.
Leader in investment and pension products
In 2015, CaixaBank was the leading bank in assets under management across both investment and pension products. In investment funds, CaixaBank Asset Management has a market share of 17.9% and ranks first in assets under management (€51,321 million including portfolios and SICAVs) and in the number of fund investors (1.2 million). During the year, CaixaBank AM received net subscriptions for €7,012 million in investment funds, accounting for 28% of the total for the sector.
In relation to pension plans and savings insurance, VidaCaixa remains the market leader in assets under management, with market shares of 21.5% and 22.2%, respectively.
CaixaBank has over €108,000 million under management across investment funds, savings insurance and pension plans, largely due to the growth of both Private Banking and Premier Banking. This figure is over 2.5 times higher than in 2007.
Increased banking income and cost containment
Changes in income and expenses brought gross income to €7,726 million (+11.3%), while pre-impairment income excluding non-recurring costs reached €3,663 million (+15.7%). Core income from the banking business (net interest income plus fee and commission income) saw 6.5% growth to reach €6,366 million.
Net interest income stood at €4,353 million (+4.8%) thanks to a sharp drop in the cost of maturity deposits, which, when coupled with the integration of the Barclays Bank, SAU business, offset the fall in interest rates and the impact of removing floor clauses from mortgage contracts. Fee and commission income climbed to €2,013 million (+10.3%) due to increased sales of off-balance sheet products.
Recurring expenses shed 1.2% on a like-for-like basis (pro-forma including Barclays Bank, SAU in 2014). Factoring in the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU, recurring operating expenses were up 7.7% to reach €4,063 million. Total expenses included the recognition of €259 million in non-recurring costs associated with Barclays Bank, SAU and €284 million in connection with the labour agreement signed in the second quarter.
The changes seen in income and costs during the year triggered an improvement of 1.8 percentage points in the cost-to-income ratio without non-recurring costs, which stood at 52.6%.
Impairment losses on financial assets and others amounted to €2,516 million, down 2.4% year on year. Insolvency allowances have been reduced (-23.6% yoy) while other provisions, including an estimate of the coverage needed for future contingencies and other asset impairment losses, have increased.
NPLs down 181 basis points to 7.9%
The drop in the NPL ratio steadily accelerated during the year, eventually reaching 7.9% at year-end after shedding 181 basis points during the year, despite the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU. The annual change here can be attributed to the organic decline in NPLs (-232bp), which offset the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU (+21bp) and the impact of the deleveraging process (+30bp). Stripping out the real estate developer sector, the NPL ratio dropped to 6.2% (-27bp in 2015).
Non-performing loans fell to €17,100 million on the back of an organic decline across all risk segments (down €5,242 million in the year, with €2,051 million of this occurring in the fourth quarter).
The intense activity of BuildingCenter, CaixaBank’s real estate subsidiary, generated €2,077 million in sales and rentals of foreclosed real estate assets.
The net portfolio of foreclosed real estate available for sale amounted to €7,259 million and is now starting to level off (up €540 million in 2015; €316 stripping out the balances integrated from Barclays Bank, SAU), with coverage up 3 percentage points to 58%.
At 31 December 2015, the Group’s real estate assets held for rent stood at €2,966 million, net of provisions. The rental portfolio has an occupancy rate of 93%.
Reduction in the weight of the capital charge on stakes
On 3 December 2015, the Board of Trustees of the ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation and the boards of directors of both CaixaBank and CriteriaCaixa signed a swap agreement whereby CaixaBank undertook to transfer to CriteriaCaixa a 17.24% stake in The Bank of East Asia (BEA) and a 9.01% stake in Grupo Financiero Inbursa (GFI), while in exchange CriteriaCaixa agreed to hand CaixaBank the 9.9% of CaixaBank shares owned by CriteriaCaixa, plus €642 million in cash.
The swap will allow CaixaBank to accomplish, a year ahead of schedule, the objective set out in the 2015-2018 strategic plan, which calls for a one-third reduction in the weight of the capital charge of the stake portfolio to below 10% before the end of 2016. Following the deal, the weight of the capital charge of minority holdings will fall to around 8% (pro-forma at December 2015).
Income from the investee portfolio stood at €578 million (+17.7%) in 2015. Lower results from Repsol were reported in the fourth quarter due to the asset write-downs attributed by the company. In 2014, the equities portfolio was impacted by the non-recurring loss attributable to Erste Group Bank.
Capital strength and excellent liquidity
CaixaBank reported core capital (fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1) of 11.6% at 31 December 2015 (11.6% at the end of the third quarter), on a fully-loaded basis. According to the phase-in criteria, CaixaBank’s regulatory CET1 ratio stood at 12.7% while its total capital ratio reached 15.7%, ahead of all the other main financial institutions in Spain.
Bank liquidity was €54,090 million at year-end (15.7% of the Group’s assets), impacted by changes in the loan-deposit gap, the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU, the drop in institutional financing and the increase in financing secured from the ECB.
The Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) was 172% in the fourth quarter of 2015, comfortably ahead of the 130% target defined under the 2015-2018 Strategic Plan.
Welfare Projects: 9.9 million beneficiaries
The ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation, which directly oversees Welfare Projects and uses CriteriaCaixa to pool together all of the ”la Caixa” Group’s shareholdings, including CaixaBank, made further improvements to its business in 2015 and devised its 2016-2019 Strategic Plan, which will guide the foundation’s actions over the coming four years. The ultimate aim: to build a better and fairer society by creating opportunities for those most in need.
To accomplish this, Welfare Projects will once again have a budget of €500 million in 2016, the same allowance as for the past eight years, making it Spain’s leading foundation when it comes to funds invested in social welfare projects and also one the largest in Europe and indeed worldwide.
Social programmes will remain the focus of this activity. Two of the foundation’s initiatives, both now fully consolidated, have led to major improvements for the good of society: CaixaProinfancia and Incorpora.
In 2015, the CaixaProinfancia child poverty programme aided over 61,400 children and their family members in Spain’s main cities, and the project will continue to expand in 2016 in a bid to guarantee the well-being of those children given fewer opportunities in life. In the field of direct social action, Fundación de la Esperanza, located in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella district, has been stepping up its activity and has now reached out to over 1,500 beneficiaries.
Incorpora managed to create 23,626 jobsfor underprivileged groups of society in the last year alone, compared to 18,405 in 2014. This increase was down to the collaboration and support of over 8,700 companies across Spain. The project will focus on Self-Employment Points in 2016 in a bid to improve levels of enterprise among people facing or at risk of exclusion.
In similar fashion, the programme aims to focus more on young freelance workers by helping them pay their monthly Social Contribution contributions . The aid will remain available until the end of the year and has already helped over 5,700 young people who have signed up for the flat rate scheme offered by the Ministry of Employment and Social Security.
Century-old commitment to the elderly
In 2015, the Senior Citizens programme of Welfare Projects celebrated its one hundred-year anniversary. No less than 803,000 people took part in over 16,200 social, cultural, healthcare and technology-related projects and ventures in 2015, all aimed at championing active ageing, social involvement and the respect and dignity of senior members of society, showing just how important the elderly have always been to the entity.
The ”la Caixa” volunteering scheme also reached its ten-year anniversary in 2015. Since its inception, upwards of 7,600 serving and retired employees and their family members have taken part in the project, helping to further a total of 12,000 projects across all of Spain that have reached out to over one million people.
Providing easier access to housing is another strategic priority of Welfare Projects, given its overriding importance for many citizens . ”la Caixa” is now able to provide over 33,000 flats through a range of different initiatives (affordable housing through charity-assisted renting, social renting and the Social Housing Fund).
On the subject of hospital care, the Foundation has extended its aid programme for people with advanced illnesses to 109 hospitals and 126 home care support units. A total of 18,046 patients received psychological and social support in 2015 , as part of a programme that also provides support for family members (over 24,000 beneficiaries) and grief counselling.
The entity remains staunchly committed to education as a driver of individual and collective advancement and training therefore remains one of its key focal points. With this goal in mind, the eduCaixa programme has reached out to over 2.3 million pupils from a total of 8,887 Spanish schools. The initiative encompasses a series of innovative, practical and easy-to-access educational resources, with programmes designed to hone entrepreneurial skills, boost careers in science, disseminate art and culture and promote personal growth through the development of healthy habits, values and social awareness.
This tireless commitment to education just so happened to transcend borders in 2015 thanks to the entity’s involvement in the Firefly project, which seeks to improve the education of children living in hard-to-reach rural areas of China that frequently see extreme temperature changes. The aim is to offer more educational opportunities to these school children by providing them with the same training material that most pupils from more developed regions already enjoy, while also improving teacher training.
Further highlights for the year included the Bank’s ongoing efforts to champion intercultural cohesion and coexistence, while helping prison inmates rejoin society, supporting the training of university students through a post-graduate grants scheme, and rolling out over 950 projects being developed by entities across Spain through a social aid schemes, with total investment topping €20 million.
Supporting cultural and scientific programmes and events
A total of 5 million people attended the cultural, scientific and educational programmes and events organised across all of Spain by ”la Caixa” Welfare Projects in 2015, up 7.41% year on year. In Barcelona, CaixaForum and CosmoCaixa attracted over 1.5 million visitors between them.
Focusing on the cultural sphere, key milestones for 2015 included the announcement of new alliances with two internationally renowned institutions: the Prado Museum and the British Museum. Thanks to these agreements, exclusive exhibitions will be organised jointly at the different CaixaForum centres, which are now planning an impressive range of exhibitions and events, including Dibujar Versailles. Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) (CaixaForum Barcelona); Mujeres de Roma. Seductoras, maternales, excesivas (CaixaForum Madrid); and El Greco. La mirada de Rusiñol (CaixaForum Zaragoza). One last example of the foundation’s cultural work in 2015 was its support for the digital version of the 23rd edition of the Dictionary of Spanish Language of the Royal Academy, which receives over 500 million searches every year.
Palau Macaya remained the foundation’s main venue for promoting ideas and advancing thought. During the year, the palace staged a total of 760 activities involving more than 41,000 participants. In addition, the European School of Humanities is now based at the palace under the direction of Josep Ramoneda, marking a further step forward in this direction.
The foundation also stepped up its ongoing support for scientific development in 2015 by rolling out projects to improve research into Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, neurodegenerative illnesses, cancer, AIDS and cardiovascular conditions. Just five years after its inception, Instituto de Salud Global, or ISGlobal for short, has already become one of the leading global healthcare centres in Europe and plays a key role in the fight against malaria.
Turning to the environment, a total of 210 conservation and improvement projects were carried out in 2015 in natural parks across all of Spain, with recruitment for the initiatives focusing on people at risk of exclusion.
In 2015, the foundation stepped up its collaboration with internationally renowned entities, including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -to promote child vaccination in developing countries- and UNICEF, with the aim of reducing child deaths caused by pneumonia. Welfare Projects also forged an alliance with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to champion two new social and economic projects in Colombia, while continuing to support more than 50 initiatives aimed at improving living conditions in the world’s most impoverished areas.
In a nutshell, the past twelve months have shown just how much Welfare Projects’ operational capacity has improved following its integration into the ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation a little over a year ago. It was a year of offering opportunities to people, especially those most in need, through a broad spectrum of life-changing programmes and initiatives.
Twelve months in which a grand total of 9.9 million people benefited from the 46,209 initiatives rolled out by what is the soul of the ”la Caixa” Group: its Welfare Projects. It very reason for being.
• Core operating income (net interest income + fees and commissions - recurring expenses) rose by 8.9% to €1,766 million.
• 17.3% year-on-year reduction in loss loan charges (€1,375 million). Steep quarterly decline in loan loss charges (-46.4%), reflects the efforts made in the first half of the year to ensure adequate provisioning of the loan portfolio.
• Recurring expenses fell by 0.6% on a like-for-like basis, while increasing by 8.5% to €3,066 million once the impact of Barclays Bank, SAU is accounted for. Total expenses included the recognition of €259 million in extraordinary operating expenses in 1Q due to the restructuring of Barclays Bank, SAU and €284 million in connection with the voluntary collective dismissal agreement in the second quarter.
• Early delivery of cost-saving plans supports gradual efficiency improvement: cost-to-income ratio, excluding extraordinary costs at 51.7% (-5.1pp over the last 12 months),
• Customer funds reached €289,460 million (+6.5%) and loans totalled €209,055 million (+6%), on the back of the Barclays Bank, SAU acquisition and tapering off of the deleveraging process. New lending growth led by mortgage loans (+64% year on year), consumer loans (up 48% year on year) and loans to corporates (+49% year on year).
• Capital ratios continue to grow as retained profits lead to organic build-up,with the fully loaded Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio reaching 11.6%, 12.8% under the regulatory CET1.The total capital ratio stands at 15.8%, the highest among the main Spanish financial institutions. Ample liquidity is improved further to €50,952 million.
• The “la Caixa” Group makes affordable housing available to 31,448 low-income families and individuals though both charity-assisted renting and social renting.
CaixaBank, the number one retail bank in Spain with Isidro Fainé as Chairman and Gonzalo Gortázar as CEO, reported net attributable profit of €996 million for the first nine months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 57.3%.
The improvement was supported by core revenues, cost control and steep decline in loan loss charges.
Steady market share growth has enabled the Bank to boost its income generating capacity, with gross income reaching €6,316 million, up +15.1%). This increase in commercial activity, coupled with the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU. has driven net interest income up by +7.6%; fee and commission income by +11%;customer lending by +6%; and customer funds by +6.5%.
Fast pace of NPL reduction was maintained in a seasonal quarter, with the NPL ratio coming down to 8.7%. The stock of loan loss provisions reached €10,584 million, equivalent to a coverage ratio of 55%.
Loan provisioning (€1,375 million) was down 17.3% year on year. The step quarterly decline in loan loss charges (- 46.4%), reflects the efforts made in the first half of the year to ensure adequate provisioning of the coverage of risks inherent to the loan portfolio.
Core revenue strength, cost control and cost of risk improvement underpin improvements in pre-impairment income. Recurring costs continue to decline as synergies from the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU continue to feed in: €102 million during 2015 and €163 million from 2016 onwards.
CaixaBank remains one of the most solvent banks operating within the Spanish and European financial sectors, with a Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio fully loaded of 11.6%. Under phase-in criteria, regulatory CET1 stood at 12.8%.
Increased banking income and cost discipline
Changes in income and expenses brought gross income to €6,316 million (+15.1%), with pre-impairment income of €2,707 million (+1.8%). Recurring pre-impairment income rose 22.2% to €3,250 million.
This strong performance lifted core income from the banking business (interest income + fees and commissions - recurring expenses) to €1,766 million (+8.9%).
Net interest income totalled €3,308 million (up +7.6% on the first nine months of 2014). The solid performance illustrates the Bank's approach to retail banking activity, with a sharp drop in the cost of maturity deposits, which, coupled with the acquisition of Barclays Bank, SAU, helped cushion the impact of the lower returns on loans as interest rates continue to fall and the fixed income portfolio continues to shrink.
Fees and commissions amounted to €1,524 million (+11%) due to the increase in sales of off-balance sheet products and the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU.
Recurring expenses on a like-for-like basis (pro-forma including Barclays Bank, SAU in the first nine months of 2014) shed 0.6%. Factoring in the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU, recurring operating expenses were up 8.5%.Total expenses included the recognition of €259 million in non-recurring costs associated with Barclays Bank, SAU and €284 million in connection with the labour agreement signed in the second quarter.
The cost-to-income ratio, stripping out non-recurring costs, was 51.7% (down 5.1pp over the last 12 months).
Reduction in insolvency allowances
Impairment losses on financial assets and others stood at €1,762 million, down 2.1% year on year. Strong reduction in insolvency allowances (€1,375 million), down 17.3% year on year. Cost of risk down 36 basis points in the past 12 months to 0.82%.
The quarter-on-quarter trend in NPL allowances, down 46.4%, reflects the efforts made in the first half of the year to ensure coverage of risks inherent to the loan portfolio.
NPLs fall further to 8.7%
The drop in the NPL ratio picked up pace to rest at 8.7% at the end of the period after shedding 96 basis points in the year to date, despite the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU. The annual change can be explained by the organic decline drop in NPLs (-141bp), which helped offset the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU (+21bp) and the impact of the deleveraging process (+24bp). The NPL ratio stripping out real estate developers was 6.5%.
Non-performing loans decreased to €19,151 million on the back of the strong organic reduction in all risk segments (- €3,191 million in the year to date, of which €964 million correspond to the third quarter).
The intense activity of BuildingCenter, CaixaBank’s real estate subsidiary, generated sales and rentals of real estate assets for a total of €2,210 million in the past 12 months, with 19,484 properties either sold or rented.
The net portfolio of foreclosed real estate available for sale amounted to €7,070 million and is starting to stabilise (€7,009 million at 30 June 2015), with coverage of 57.1%.
At 30 September 2015, the Group’s real estate assets held for rent stood at €3,140 million, net of provisions. The occupancy ratio for the portfolio is 88%.
Capital strength and excellent liquidity
At 30 September 2015, CaixaBank’s Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio fully loaded stood at 11.6%, applying the criteria envisaged for the end of the phase-in period. Under the phase-in criteria in force this year, CaixaBank has a regulatory CET1 ratio of 12.8%, while the total capital ratio stands at 15.8%, the highest among the main Spanish financial institutions.
Bank liquidity was €50,952 million at 30 September 2015, impacted by changes in the loan-deposit gap, the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU, the drop in institutional financing and the increase in financing secured from the ECB. The Bank has drawn down €16,319 million under the ECB facility, consisting entirely of TLTRO.
The loan-to-deposits ratio stood at 109.5%, reflecting the solid structure of retail financing.
694,500 new payroll deposits secured in the first nine months
The commercial strength of the CaixaBank Group and the acquisition of Barclays Bank, SAU have enabled sustained growth to be achieved in market shares for the main financial products and services. Furthermore, Euromoney has named CaixaBank "Best Bank in Spain 2015", while Forrester Research has awarded it the title of world's best bank when it comes to mobile banking services.
On the commercial front, the Bank continues to focus efforts on attracting and retaining customers, as shown by the 694,500 payrolls secured in the first nine months (up +35% year on year), pushing up the Bank’s payroll market share to 24.9% (+1.8pp in the year to date), with a total of 3,200,000 payrolls.
Customer loans and advances, gross, stood at €209,005 million (+6%) following the integration of Barclays Bank, SAU and the drop in debt deleveraging. The performing loan portfolio ex-real estate developers grew by 8% (+€13,766 million), marking a stable performance stripping out Barclays Bank, SAU (-0.9%). The total portfolio was impacted by the significant reduction in organic exposure to the real estate development sector (-25.5% in the year to date) and seasonal factors during the quarter.
Further, new loans increased by 48% compared to 3Q14: with mortgage loans gaining 64%, consumer loans up 48% and loans to companies rising 49%.
CaixaBank’s strong market shares for working capital financing products (18.9% for factoring and reverse factoring and 15% for commercial loans) illustrate its commitment to providing credit for the productive system. The total loan market share was 16.4%.
Total customer funds stood at €289,460 million, up €17,702 million (+6.5% in 2015 to date with a +0.7% organic change). As in previous quarters, the performance of customer funds was driven by channelling savings towards off-balance sheet products through a broad and diversified product range. Market conditions and seasonal factors also had a significant impact during the quarter. The market share for customer deposits was 15.1%.
CaixaBank remains a market leader when it comes to assets under management in investment and pension products. On the subject of investment funds, InverCaixa boasts a market share of 17.7% and is a leader in assets under management (€49,803 million including portfolios and SICAVs) and in the number of fund investors (1.1 million). In the third quarter, InverCaixa secured 42% of net contributions in the sector.
In relation to pension plans and savings insurance, it also remains the market leader in assets under management, with a market share of 21.5%.
Welfare Projects, responding to the main challenges of our time
The “la Caixa” Banking Foundation, which directly oversees Welfare Projects and pools all of the “la Caixa” Group’s shareholding, including CaixaBank, in Criteria CaixaHolding, has reaffirmed its commitment to continuing the Entity’s most strategic programmes and developing the social, educational, scientific, environmental and cultural initiatives promoted in the third quarter of 2015.
Social projects and support work are one of the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation’s priorities, for which it has earmarked €336 million of the €500 million budgeted for “la Caixa” Welfare Projects in 2015, in line with the preceding seven years. Cultural activities will receive 13.5% (€67 million); science and environmental initiatives will absorb 11.2% (€56 million); while support for education and research will take 8.2% (€41 million).
The Entity’s social commitment is predicated on three main pillars: the promotion of employment, combating poverty and social exclusion, and access to housing. A prime example of this is the Incorpora programme, created in 2006 to promote the inclusion of people at risk of social exclusion into the job market. During the third quarter this year, the total number of jobs facilitated under the Incorpora programme since it was first launched topped 100,000. The year-on-year figure also increased: 17,016 between January and September compared to 13,446 in the first nine months of 2014.
Initiatives to boost employment were supplemented this quarter by 196 projects promoting social and labour market inclusion across Spain, with the Foundation investing €4.5 million.
Helping the most vulnerable households
In the fight against exclusion, and aimed particularly households with vulnerable young members, CaixaProinfancia helped 51,280 children between January and September this year, putting the total number helped since the programme was first started in 2007 at over 249,000.
“la Caixa” Welfare Projects and the Spanish federation of food banks (FESBAL) have collected more than a million litres of milk for the most vulnerable families. The charity of the general public will enable 60,000 children at risk to consume the recommended minimum quantity of milk - one litre per person a week - until the end of the year.
Furthermore, the Foundation has extended its care programme for people with advanced diseases to 104 healthcare centres. A total of 13,705 patients received psychological and social care and support during the third quarter of 2015, while more than 79,000 have benefited from the scheme since it was inaugurated in 2009.
Another strategic initiative run by the Foundation is its programme for the Elderly, which this year celebrates its 100th edition. In the year to date, more than 500,000 people have taken part in more than 9,900 social, cultural, health and technological initiatives aimed primarily at encouraging healthy ageing and social involvement and securing respect and dignity for the elderly.
The various programmes rolled out to provide access to social housing (affordable housing through both charity-assisted renting and social renting) currently have 31,448 homes. These homes, with monthly rents starting from €85, are available all over Spain for people with very low incomes.
Training remains a key concern for the Bank. Specifically, students from 6,024 Spanish schools had access to the eduCaixa programme to September. This initiative encompasses a series of innovative, practical and easy-to-access educational resources, with programmes designed to hone entrepreneurial skills, boost careers in science, disseminate art and culture and promote personal growth through the development of healthy habits, values and social awareness.
Support for research and culture
As part of the Bank’s commitment to research, CaixaImpulse, a joint venture created by the Banking Foundation and Caixa Capital Risc, has selected 15 initiatives from the 41 projects presented at different research centres, hospitals and universities. This is the first comprehensive programme to be set up in Spain for creating biotechnology companies in a bid to help transform scientific knowledge in companies, and life sciences and healthcare products that generate value within society.
This consistent and rigorous support for scientific advancement is also reflected in the development of research projects in areas such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, neuro-degenerative diseases, AIDS and cardio vascular disorders.
In the cultural arena, the third quarter saw the presentation of partnerships with two renowned international institutions: the Prado Museum and the British Museum. As a result of these agreements, exclusive exhibitions will be organised jointly at the different CaixaForum centres. These venues are currently hosting a wide variety of displays, including: Alvar Aalto 1898-1976. Organic architecture, art and design (CaixaForum Madrid); Animals and Pharaohs. The animal kingdom in Ancient Egypt” (CaixaForum Bareclona); Sorolla. Drawings in the sand (CaixaForum Lleida); and George Méliès. The magic of cinema (CaixaForum Tarragona). This quarter, the Welfare Projects’ cultural initiatives included the 500th anniversary celebration of the birth of Saint Teresa with various activities.
Internationally, during the third quarter the collaboration between “la Caixa” and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote child vaccination in developing nations was strengthened. Thanks to this project, the two entities will quadruple the financial contributions from the public to vaccinate children in poorer countries.
