CaixaBank inaugurates new facilities in Frankfurt to strengthen its international banking strategy in Europe

• Gonzalo Gortázar, CaixaBank's Chief Executive Officer, and Uwe Becker, the Mayor of Frankfurt, have inaugurated the new facilities of the bank's international branch in the city that hosts the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB).
• After nearly a year in Frankfurt as an international branch, the office now has customers from sectors such as distribution, the automotive and supporting industry, engineering, tourism, construction and infrastructures.
• CaixaBank has a network of 24 international branches and representative offices distributed across the five continents.

Gonzalo Gortázar, CaixaBank's Chief Executive Officer, and Uwe Becker, the Mayor of Frankfurt, have inaugurated the new facilities of the CaixaBank’s international branch in the German city. This inauguration represents a step further in CaixaBank's international banking business growth strategy, whose expansion has accelerated in recent years, consolidating the bank as a benchmark institution in global international banking. This international network now has 24 international branches and representative offices spread all over the world.

At the business meeting held on the occasion of the launch of the new facilities in Germany, Gonzalo Gortázar stated that “these new facilities will enable the headway of CaixaBank's growth in Europe. In this sense, we want to strengthen our leadership in international banking with presence across the five continents and to be a global benchmark for Spanish companies with international activity and for multinationals that operate in Spain”.

Uwe Becker, the Mayor of Frankfurt, stated: "We are delighted that with this step, Frankfurt as a financial center continues to gain in international importance and the leading private bank in Spain is now opening its branch office. The relationship between Frankfurt and Spain will be strengthened”.

New facilities in Frankfurt

CaixaBank has moved its international branch in Germany to new, larger offices in a better location to consolidate its presence in the country and to offer a more suitable service to its clients and companies with interests in Spain and Germany. The new facilities, which are located in the financial centre of the city, feature a space dedicated to promoting the business relationships of the bank's clients.

This relocation comes after the representative office in the city obtained its banking licence almost a year ago, in order to be able to offer foreign trade, company banking and corporate banking services. In this time, CaixaBank has gained customers from sectors such as distribution, the automotive and supporting industry, engineering, tourism, construction and infrastructures.

The international branch has a multicultural team of professionals from Spain and Germany, which has enabled it to blend CaixaBank's experience with local knowledge.  

About CaixaBank's international network

CaixaBank has 24 representative and international branches spread across the five continents. It is present in Europe, with offices in Frankfurt, Paris, London and Warsaw; in northern Africa in Casablanca, Tangier and Agadir; in Asia in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore; in America with facilities in New York, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile and Bogotá; and Oceania, in Sidney, as well as other notable locations. CaixaBank is the leader in foreign trade operations with over 30% of the market share in the international bank guarantees service.

Similarly, CaixaBank holds agreements with international banks to facilitate the international operations and foreign trade of companies and individuals in any country in the world. CaixaBank also has a capital presence in the financial institutions of several countries, with which it has developed joint collaboration strategies. The bank has a 94.95% shareholding in BPI and 9.92% of the Austrian institution Erste Bank.

CaixaBank was recently named the “Best Confirming-Bank Partner for Financing in Emerging Markets 2017” by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an entity of the World Bank Group, within the Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP).

Germany, a strong trade partner for Spain and Europe's financial engine

Germany is a priority market for CaixaBank. Its privileged geographical location makes it the nerve centre of commercial trade in Europe. The presence of CaixaBank in the country dates back to 2002, when the bank began to accompany its clients that broadened their businesses into Germany. Subsequently, in 2004, it opened a representative office that became an international branch in 2017.

The country is Spain's second-most trade partner, after France, and its leading supplier. The bulk of Spain's imports from Germany include industrial goods, notably from the automotive industry, semi-manufactured products and equipment.  These same sectors constitute almost three quarters of Spanish exports to Germany, which reveals the strikingly intra-industrial nature of the bilateral trade, according to ICEX data.

In 2017, exports of Spanish goods to Germany rose by 5.7% compared to 2016, whereas imports increased by 6%. The total volume of trade surged to almost 70,000 million euros, setting an all-time high for the third consecutive year, according to ICEX.