Jordi Gual explains the 2019-2021 Strategic Plan to the CaixaBank Shareholders' Advisory Committee

• The chairman of the Bank emphasised that “CaixaBank must continue to create value in a sustainable manner for its clients, its shareholders, its employees and society as a whole”. On the other hand, the corporate director of Innovation and Digital Transformation, Mariona Vicens, set out the challenges of the new Strategic Plan, which was recently announced to boost the Bank's innovation in its digital transformation process.
• Four new members have recently been appointed to the advisory body, ensuring that the committee as a whole reflects the key characteristics of CaixaBank's shareholder base.
• The members of the Committee also had the opportunity to learn about the new initiatives for shareholders in 2018, including the webinars that have enabled a 38% increase in the number of participants in the Programa Aula training programme.

The chairman of CaixaBank, Jordi Gual, and the corporate director of Innovation and Digital Transformation, Mariona Vicens, have held another meeting today with the members of the Shareholders' Advisory Committee. During the meeting, the advisory board received an explanation of the Strategic Plan for 2019-2021, which CaixaBank recently presented and which will define the Bank's roadmap for the next 3 years.

Besides delving into the key areas that make up the new Strategic Plan, the members of the Committee also had the opportunity to learn first-hand about the various activities undertaken with shareholders during 2018. During the course of this year, 17 corporate meetings have been organised throughout the country, attended by nearly 900 shareholders. As part of the Bank's desire to make ever stronger connections with its retail shareholders, the meeting locations prioritised towns that are located far from the major population centres. On the other hand, 24 sessions of the so-called Programa Aula training programme were also held. Through these sessions, training was provided to more than 1,600 shareholders, 38% more than in 2017, covering topics such as macroeconomics, taxation and technical securities analysis. This training programme was launched in 2011 and was a pioneering initiative among the companies of the IBEX 35. Since then, over 120 courses have been delivered and more than 9,000 shareholders have received training.

As part of the Bank's strategy to promote financial training and innovation, CaixaBank recently launched the Webinars Aula programme, which offers online educational seminars for shareholders. With these new webinars, in 2019 CaixaBank will increase the number of financial training events it provides as part of the Programa Aula training programme for shareholders, with the goal of increasing the tools that the Bank offers its investors and helping them to make better investment decisions. The Programa Aula training programme is complemented with the online resources that are available on the programme's website, such as videos, written training materials and the Aula app, through which shareholders can access all the materials of the programme on their mobile phone.

Jordi Gual, CaixaBank's chairman, has used his third meeting with this group as an opportunity to transmit to those present that “our goal is to lead the digital transformation that is taking place, while remaining aware that people must come first. We want CaixaBank to be the leading institution in socially responsible banking, while continuing to create value in a sustainable manner for our clients, our shareholders, our employees and society as a whole”. With regards to shareholders, the chairman remarked that they “represent a significant source of stability for the Bank and that it is essential to share with them both the milestones achieved in recent months and our roadmap for the next few years to come”. The chairman ended his talk at the Advisory Committee meeting by stating that “we must strive to improve our technology and to increase people's trust in our different approach to banking, which translates into initiatives such as those led by this Shareholders' Advisory Committee”.

Meanwhile, Mariona Vicens, corporate director of Innovation and Digital Transformation, shared with CaixaBank's Advisory Committee the challenges of the Bank's new Strategic Plan, which was recently announced to boost the Bank's innovation in its digital transformation process. “This new era, which began in July, involves a collaborative working culture and a new way of managing processes in order to remain at the cutting edge of innovation within the financial sector”, explained Vicens, for whom the goal is to “boost all areas with a direct focus on client relationships, thus helping to meet their needs”.

During the course of the meeting, the Advisory Committee had the opportunity to learn first-hand about the status of the implementation of the improvements that were proposed in the last meeting held in February, as well as the new projects that are being prepared for 2019. The topics covered in this regard included the success of the Shareholders' Online Office service, for which the Bank has received an award from the Good Governance Forum for the best initiative in strengthening shareholder relations; the excellent reception of the Cómic Aula training comic, “Las Finanzas de Carlota” (Carlota's Finances), which was launched in July; and the implementation of the new online financial training seminars.

Renewal of a portion of the members

The CaixaBank Shareholders' Advisory Committee, a pioneer initiative among the companies of the IBEX 35, is made up of 17 retail shareholders who meet at least twice a year.

As established by the Advisory Committee code, members can remain in the committee for a maximum of three years, hence a portion of the members are renewed annually. New members are selected based on the candidacies received and an effort is made to ensure that they reflect the composition of the shareholder base. Each member of the Committee must be a CaixaBank shareholder and possess a minimum of 1,000 shares throughout their time as a member.

CaixaBank received nearly 60 applications for the four positions due to be renewed. Following this process, in 2018 the following new members have been appointed: Ramon Grau Sala, Aleix Riñé Casajuana, Antonio Lucio-Villegas Ramos and Mercedes Basterra Larroude.

This advisory body forms part of the various mechanisms that CaixaBank establishes in order to strengthen connections with its more than 586,000 retail shareholders, with a view to contributing to the continuous improvement of two-way communications and to encourage the utmost level of transparency.