CaixaBank's international banking network renews AENOR quality certification for its customer management model

• The certificate reflects the growth in market share, compliance with planned targets, the implementation of best practices and the International Banking Expert Programme.
• With this certification, CaixaBank’s international banking business showcases the continued improvement in the quality of its customer service and management.

CaixaBank has successfully renewed the AENOR quality certification for its management model in financial services provision to its international banking network, in the framework of AENOR’s standards for Business Financial advisory.

The company has thus secured the renewal of the certificate that the bank first received in 2017, when it became the first international banking network of a Spanish bank to receive this recognition. 

Since the previous audit in September 2019, AENOR praised CaixaBank’s “growth in market share and compliance with planned targets” despite the pandemic and noted “the coverage given to the success stories to implement good practices, as well as the International Banking Expert Programme”.

According to the certification company's analysis, the network has seen its market share grow, both in Europe and internationally, exhibiting a positive trend in areas such as business volume and evolution and the sale of its own products.

The report also emphasises the improved training of the network's professionals through greater specialisation of the teams in key business, such as Commercial, Legal, Operations, Risks and Compliance, and more training tailored for the expatriate personnel to stay up to date on Spanish law, and the enhanced effort to promote the international banking business in other areas of the bank by working to improve the collaboration between different segments of the organisation.

The International Banking Expert Programme, whose goal is to grow the number of professionals with international experience, as well as to enrich them personally, is part of this framework.

A rigorous audit

The process of renewing the AENOR certification entailed a detailed audit of CaixaBank's model for managing its international banking business. The audit, conducted from July to September 2021, involved several company-wide departments, such as Human Resources, Internal Quality and Customer Experience. On this occasion, the activity of the CaixaBank branches in Frankfurt (Germany) and Tangier (Morocco) were audited in person, as was the activity in the representative offices in New York (USA) and Toronto (Canada). Over this period, the remaining branches and representative offices that make up the international banking network were also audited, albeit remotely, as per the AENOR model, and the reports were submitted for evaluation. Over 1,300 people took part in the process.

The goal of obtaining this certification is to constantly improve the service and management quality provided to the customers of CaixaBank's international network. The AENOR quality certification is essential to the business model of the bank, whose 2019-2021 Strategic Plan lays out “offering the best experience to the customer” as one of its basic pillars to. This certificate is also supports CaixaBank's EFQM European Excellence Model.

CaixaBank's International Banking Network 

CaixaBank's International Banking offers support to customers of the branch network, CIB and Business Banking that operate abroad, as well as to local large corporates, thanks to its global outreach with over 150 professionals, 27 international service points and agreements with more than 1,760 correspondent banks.

CaixaBank's CIB&IB network operates branches in Germany, France, Morocco, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom, all of which, with the exception of Portugal, are authorised by the Spanish and local regulators to provide specific financial and banking services, such as short- and long-term financing, factoring, confirming, and other similar services related to this type of activity.

The institution also has 18 representative offices on 5 continents: Milan (Italy), Istanbul (Turkey), Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Dubai (United Arab Emirates), New Delhi (India), Cairo (Egypt), Algiers (Algeria), Johannesburg (South Africa), New York (USA), Santiago de Chile (Chile), Bogotá (Colombia), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Lima (Peru), Sydney (Australia) and Toronto (Canada). It also has two Spanish Desk teams in Austria's Erste Bank (Vienna) and Mexico's Inbursa (Mexico City), to serve CaixaBank business customers in these markets. 

The representative offices offer advice to multinational enterprises with subsidiaries in Spain, as well as to Spanish companies with projects abroad. Its main areas of coverage notably feature trade finance, payments, corporate and project finance.