CaixaBank earned a total of 4,816 million euros last year, when interest rates continued to rise, 53.9% more than the previous year. The good evolution of results occurred despite the increase in fiscal pressure suffered by the sector with the extraordinary banking tax, which last year represented 373 million for CaixaBank. For this 2024, the president of the bank, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, calculated that the amount will approach 500 million.
During the presentation of the annual results at the bank’s headquarters, in Valencia, Goirigolzarri assured that there is no change in the board’s position on the location of the entity’s domicile amid the political noise of recent weeks. The president added that, when the merger between CaixaBank and Bankia took place, “we said that we wanted to stay” in Valencia and “that has not changed”. In his opinion, having the headquarters in Valencia is “the best” for shareholders and customers, and he specified that there is no other place that meets the conditions of this city. Together, he proposed to the Central Government to sanction the companies – such as CaixaBank – that moved their headquarters from Catalonia in 2017.
The bank plans to distribute 60% of the profits to shareholders. For this year, the entity wants to repeat a share buyback program, as it did in 2023. The president emphasized that of the dividends paid, “half will revert to society through the La Caixa Foundation and FROB” . The investment arm of the foundation, Criteria, and the State through FROB are the main shareholders of the bank, with 33% and 17% of the capital, respectively. Yesterday, the bank updated the quantification of shareholder remuneration, which rises in the period 2022-2024 to around 12,000 million euros.
The CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, emphasized that “in an environment of normalization of interest rates, we have capitalized on the scale and the competitive position we have reached with the merger”. CaixaBank absorbed Bankia in 2021.
The interest margin, which measures the banking activity of leaving money to customers and taking deposits, grew by 54.1%, up to 10,113 million. When rates go up – as happened last year – banks charge more for the loans granted at variable rates. As in the rest of the sector, in 2023 the entity’s commissions fell by 5.1%.
Gortázar detailed that they expect rates to moderate to 2.5% this year. “The fact that rates fall in the short term will have an impact on the profit and loss accounts”, said the CEO, before adding that this drop also favors the improvement of the economy, which ends up having a positive impact on entity
The bank’s forecast – said Gortázar – is that, on average, mortgage payments on variable rate contracts will drop by around 20 euros per month. Variable rate customers with a six-month review will notice the drop in Euribor starting this month, and the rest in the coming months.
Despite the rise in interest rates, the bank managed to contain delinquencies, which stood at 2.7%. In terms of credit, the balance of the group’s healthy portfolio is above 344,000 million euros. While business and consumer portfolios increased, there was a contraction in housing.
In terms of workers, the bank closed with about 200 more employees, up to a total workforce of 44,863 people. Offices were reduced by more than 200. There were 4,191 in December.
Regarding the bank’s investment in Telefónica, Goirigolzarri assured that CaixaBank is “very comfortable” with the position in Telefónica, in which it currently controls 3.5% of the capital.
