Gonzalo Gortazar, CEO of CaixaBank, talks to Global finance the bank’s victory in the category “Best Bank in Western Europe”.
Global Finance: What impacted CaixaBank’s results in 2023?
Gonzalo Gortazar: CaixaBank’s outstanding results in 2023 reflect strong commercial activity throughout the year, with a particular focus on customers and their bancassurance needs. These results were underpinned by the strongest financial position in more than 10 years, underpinned by rate normalization and prudent risk and capital management, resulting in strong credit metrics, ample liquidity and sustainable solvency levels.
In a challenging environment, net profit increased to €4.8 billion ($5.1 billion), up 54% year-on-year, enabling us to deliver a return on equity of 13.2%.
We have created the most competitive finance offer in Spain, allowing us to offer the best solutions for each client. As a result, customer funds grew by €19 billion, or 3.1%, over the year, with the market share of long-term savings amounting to 29.3%.
Moreover, we maintain a comfortable level of non-performing assets with non-performing loans at 2.7%. CaixaBank also ended the year with strong liquidity and solvency indicators, demonstrating the Group’s strong balance sheet.
Our strength has enabled us to assist and meet the financial needs of our clients. This year, for example, we issued more than 280,000 loans to businesses in Spain and 80,000 new mortgages to families.
GF: What important sustainable development milestones has the bank achieved in 2023?
Gortasar: In 2023, CaixaBank made significant progress in the area of sustainability, reaffirming its commitment to a greener and fairer future.
As part of our Sustainable Banking Plan 2022-2024, we aim to mobilize €64 billion in sustainable finance. The plan has three priorities: leading social impact and promoting financial inclusion, delivering a sustainable transition for business and society, and developing a culture of responsibility and management excellence. We have already made significant progress in 2022 and 2023, so 79% of our target has already been achieved. Through Microbank, Europe’s leading microfinance institution, we have provided 145,000 microloans to families and small and medium-sized businesses. [small and midsize enterprises] in 2023. And we have committed to phasing out funding for thermal coal until it is completely phased out in 2030, as well as other specific decarbonization targets for the auto and steel sectors that are on top of those already set in 2023. 2022 for the oil and gas and electricity sectors.
In the area of sustainable finance, CaixaBank is a European leader according to the Refinitiv LSEG ranking, ranking first with 120 transactions worth $18.74 billion. This not only reflects our growth and commitment to finance the transition, but also our ability to lead by example in the financial sector.
GF: How have 2023 digitalization efforts improved the experience for retail, commercial and corporate customers?
Gortasar: In 2023, CaixaBank has made customer experience a key element of its strategy. This focus includes improving user experience through personalization, the growing importance of financial advice, increased mobile engagement and other digital innovations.
CaixaBank leads the digital banking market in Spain with a market share of 43.4%, according to GfK DAM, the official provider of digital consumption data in Spain. The bank serves more than 11.5 million digital clients. CaixaBank is constantly improving its digital platforms for all customer groups, especially Imagin, a mobile bank for young customers that serves more than 3.2 million customers.
CaixaBank’s initiatives for 2023 include the launch of Smartphone TPV, optimizing mobile card payments for a better user experience. The bank has also entered into a transformative partnership with Google Cloud to leverage cloud computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence to develop new customer services and accelerate our digital transformation.
In addition, CaixaBank’s cooperation with the European Central Bank [ECB] Prototyping instant payments using the digital euro, as well as integrating Bizum for simplified account exchange through the CaixaBankNow app, will mark a step forward in digital payment solutions. Reaffirming its commitment to digital innovation, CaixaBank has formed a multidisciplinary working group of more than 100 people to exclusively analyze and implement generative artificial intelligence in selected areas, which will allow us to improve our operational efficiency and customer experience.