More than 450 CaixaBank employees graduate with a Master's in Banking Business and Management and Customer Advice from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• The degree, which is groundbreaking in Spain, is aimed at professionals from the banking sector to provide high-level training in financial advising.
• The new graduates have completed more than 2,000 hours of study to work through content equivalent to three post-graduate courses.

A total of 455 CaixaBank employees have graduated with a Master's in Banking Business and Management and Customer Advice, taught by the UFP's Barcelona School of Management. This degree, which is groundbreaking in Spain, is specially designed for professionals of the banking sector, and provides them with high-level training that far exceeds the requirements of the regulator, pertaining to financial advice, knowledge of markets, assisting customers in their financial planning and risks analyses of banking transactions.

The new graduates came together in Barcelona in an event led by Juan Antonio Alcaraz, head of CaixaBank Business; Xavier Coll, Head of Human Resources and Organisation of CaixaBank; Jaume Casals, rector of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra; and Xavier Puig, academic director of the Master's degree in Banking Business and Management and Customer Advice.

Juan Antonio Alcaraz highlighted “the guarantee that comes with having a team of professionals that are better equipped to offer high-quality financial advice to our customers, designed to give tailored responses to their financial planning needs, which are adapted to the situation of the market”.

According to Xavier Coll, "the impetus to provide continual training to our professionals is fundamental for CaixaBank, and allows us to progress towards the objectives outlined in the 2019-2021 Strategic Plan to develop talent, favour meritocracy and, essentially, strengthen an agile and collaborative people-focused culture".

Jaume Casals congratulated the graduates and thanked CaixaBank for the trust placed in the UPF's Barcelona School of Management, a leader in educating professionals of the banking sector in Spain.

Meanwhile, Xavier Puig highlighted the efforts of CaixaBank to achieve excellence in its services through high-quality financial advice. "The crisis of 2008 created a need to elevate the levels of requirements and standards required from the financial sector. What we have done in the UPF's Barcelona School of Management is adapt these requirements into a high-quality, academically renowned training programme, which is unique in Spain, and has a clear practical element so that banking professionals can perform their jobs as competently and rigorously as possible".

More than 2,000 hours of study and three post-graduate diplomas

The new graduates have completed more than 2,000 hours of study to acquire knowledge corresponding to three post-graduate courses: Post-graduate diploma in Financial Advice, Post-graduate diploma in Savings and Forecasting and Post-graduate diploma in Banking Risk Analysis. The Banking Business Master's Degree can only be obtained once these three post-graduate courses have been passed. In 2018, 70 of the company's employees graduated with this master's degree.

We must emphasise that the majority of the new graduates are primarily dedicated to financial advising in the fields of Individual Banking and Premier Banking: 75% of them are branch managers in the CaixaBank network.