Isidro Fainé inaugurates the bank's first representative office in India

As part of its international customer support policy

• CaixaBank, one of the ten largest banks in the EuroZone, provides support to Spanish companies in India, a country that has annual trade flows of 4 billion euros with Spain.
• "la Caixa" Social Welfare Foundation, which runs the "la Caixa" Group's cultural, educational, social and scientific projects, has financed 17 community ventures in India to date.
• In the first half of 2011, CaixaBank handled 10% of all trade flows between Spain and India

Isidro Fainé, Chairman of CaixaBank, the leader in retail banking in Spain and one of the ten largest banks in the Eurozone by stock market capitalisation, today inaugurated a new representative office in New Delhi (India), which will provide support to the growing operations of Spanish businesses in the Indian market.

The inauguration, held in the Indian capital, was attended by Isidro Fainé, Chairman of CaixaBank and "la Caixa", who reiterated the bank's belief in India's potential for social and economic growth and successful trade relations between Spain and India.

Isidro Fainé commented that "the bank's presence in India is a further demonstration of our willingness to move with our customers as they grow internationally, as well as to contribute towards the development of a country that is now being looked to as a driver of the global economy, due to its extensive market, growing middle class, macroeconomic stability, large pool of skilled labour and robust financial system".

Extensive local experience

The new CaixaBank office in New Delhi, overseen by Peter Hansen, a professional with demonstrable experience in India, his home for 23 years, is already providing support to Spanish businesses as they establish themselves in the region, mainly in terms of their financial needs and their dealings with India, a country with which CaixaBank enjoys close relations. Further factors that help reinforce service excellence are CaixaBank's financial strength, its leading position in Spanish retail banking, where it has the trust of more than 10.5 million customers, and its strong commitment to business services via its network of branches specialising in business clients.

In the first half of 2011 CaixaBank handled 10% of all trade flows between Spain and India, which totalled more than 4 billion euros last year. Furthermore, since 2000 Spain has invested an accumulated total of around 600 million euros in India, which places it thirteenth in the ranking of countries investing in India, according to the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion at the Indian Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Three years ago Spain held the 22nd position in the ranking.

Spanish companies have made sizable investments in India in industries such as vehicles, renewable energy and infrastructure, while Spanish exports have focused on industrial products.

Solid international strategy

The new Indian representative office comes as part of CaixaBank's international strategy, and joins other representational offices in London (United Kingdom), Paris (France), Milan (Italy), Stuttgart and Frankfurt (Germany), Istanbul (Turkey), Beijing and Shanghai (China), Dubai (United Arabs Emirates) and Singapore. The bank also has its own branches in Warsaw (Poland), Bucharest (Romania) and Casablanca (Morocco), a country where it was the first Spanish bank to open a branch. Likewise, CaixaBank holds bilateral agreements with more than 2,500 international banks to facilitate international operations and foreign trade for businesses and individuals anywhere in the world.

CaixaBank also holds stakes in banks based in various countries, with which it has developed partnership strategies to provide mutual support for businesses and customers. The bank has a 20% stake in the Mexican bank GFInbursa, 30.1% of Banco BPI in Portugal, 16.9% of The Bank of East Asia based in Hong Kong, 10.1% of the Austrian entity Erste Bank and 20.7% of Boursorama in France.

"la Caixa" Social Welfare Foundation in India

CaixaBank's Chairman also took the opportunity while in India to see firsthand experience of several welfare projects run in India by different organizations. The "la Caixa" Social Welfare Foundation, which oversees the "la Caixa" Group's cultural, educational, social and scientific projects, has in recent years financed 17 international cooperation projects in India, where it now funds socio-economic development initiatives promoted by several NGOs alongside local partners.

These projects include field cultivation, agricultural education and the construction of dikes and sewer systems to support the conservation of land and water in the region of Dindori Taluka; support and reinforcement for the socio-economic development (including access to micro-credit) of women in rural areas of the Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu; and the socio-economic development of 4 of India's southern rural districts by means of upgrading a milk plant, a project that has benefitted cattle farmers with few resources, as well as sales staff and new employees at the plant.

Among the events attended by Isidro Fainé in India was the Annual Conference of the Club of Rome, held this year in New Delhi. Fainé, as well as being the Chairman of the Spanish Chapter of the Club of Rome, is a member of the organisation's international executive committee, which identifies and assesses the most pressing problems facing humanity, as well as promoting research into alternative potential solutions and identifying future scenarios.
 

Corporate information

CaixaBank is an integrated financial group, with a banking business, insurance operations and investments in international banks. It is the leading retail bank in Spain, where it began its financial enterprise more than 100 years ago. It puts strong emphasis on growth both domestically and internationally, supported by its demonstrated experience in investment in the banking sector and its characteristic prudence.

CaixaBank shares with Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona-"la Caixa", its main shareholder, a commitment to people and their environment, aiming to create value for shareholders as well as making a firm contribution to society in general. In this regard, Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona, via "la Caixa"s Social Welfare Foundation, finances and maintains social, educational, cultural and scientific programs with an annual budget of 500 million euros, making it the second largest European foundation and the fifth largest in the world.

CaixaBank group aims to create a universal banking model that provides personalized, high-quality and innovative services that are adapted to the needs of its 10.5 million customers. The sales staff (27,339) at CaixaBank's extensive network of branches (5,192) are at the heart of relations between the bank and its customers, supported by an efficient and forward-looking multi-channel distribution system.

The bank manages over 428,196 million euros in banking business, according to figures from 30 June 2011, with total customer deposits of more than 240,000 million euros. One area that the bank has been emphasizing in recent years is banking services to businesses, with CaixaBank now serving more than 380,000 business customers.

CaixaBank is also the leader in penetration in the Spanish retail banking market, where it continues to extend its market shares in various banking products and services. Based on its leadership in banking for individuals, its strategic target is to position itself as a benchmark operator in other segments, such as Business Banking, Personal Banking, Private Banking and SME Banking. Thus, by properly segmenting its customers, CaixaBank can offer personalized and high-quality services.