Spain’s Ibercaja Bank reveals future plans to keeping going alone

WITH the merging of Spanish banks being recommended by the Bank of Spain, Zaragoza based Ibercaja Banco has just confirmed that it intends to continue alone.

It started as a savings bank 145 years ago and expanded in 2011 by taking over other savings banks which allowed it to grow significantly.

The President José Luis Aguirre and CEO Víctor Iglesias have now revealed their strategy to take the bank forward by publishing their 2021-2023 ‘Challenge Plan’.

In this, they are looking to continue to offer a wide range of customer services which includes, banking, mortgages, insurance, pensions and much more with the aim of adding an additional 50 per cent of customers in personal, business and private banking.

Another target sees a determination to exceed a 7 per cent return on investment with a new focus on the development of technological knowledge to help increase customer satisfaction and to reduce costs.

There is also a plan to strengthen the bank’s financial position to ensure that it is able to cope with any new and unexpected problems which may arise as Spain emerges from the pandemic and it has over the past three years reduced the burden of non-performing assets by almost €5 billion.

A statement from the President makes it clear that he and his board have every confidence in the future of the Spanish economy for the future.

According to the Expansion website, there are also plans for Ibercaja to be floated on the Madrid Stock Exchange, either in 2021 or 2022 depending upon the state of the share market.