Caixabank already has a roadmap for the 2022-2024 period. The entity has announced its new strategic plan, with Bankia already integrated into the balance sheet, with which it aspires to achieve a return of more than 12% (ROTE), which would mean almost doubling the current figure. A three-year horizon that is complemented by a forecast of generating 9,000 million euros of capital for shareholders.
At a time when banking is not entirely attractive to investors, Caixabank winks at shareholders. «One of the main objectives of the entity for this three-year period is to apply an attractive remuneration policy to shareholders. His forecast is to generate around 9,000 million capital.
This amount includes dividends (with a ‘payout’ of more than 50%), the delivery of 1,800 million corresponding to the share repurchase plan announced today and the excess capital over 12%”, the bank reported. Thus, the firm joins the wave of share buybacks initiated in the sector by BBVA and Santander.
Likewise, the bank highlights that the main beneficiary of taking care of the shareholder will be the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, with around 30% of the share capital. And behind it is the State with 16.1% through the FROB, with which the public coffers will also benefit from this financial policy of the entity.
Caixabank has added that its goal is “to maintain a high commercial activity in loans (mortgages, companies and consumption) and customer funds” to strengthen its position as a leader in the Spanish market. Related to all this, the roadmap includes an expected rate of increase in revenues of 7% between 2022 and 2024, driven by insurance activity (10%) and a moderate evolution of commissions (2%). »With this, the interest margin will rise by 8%, supported by the new interest rate environment«, he stated.
In terms of mortgages, the bank expects a 50% improvement in new production compared to the 2019-2021 period, while in consumer credit the goal is to grow 30% in new production.
Currently the delinquency ratio stands at 3.5%. A very contained rate taking into account the worst predictions that were given at the beginning of the pandemic, although it should be noted that a good part of the credit guaranteed by the ICO is still lacking. In this strategic plan, Caixabank does not forget to keep defaults at healthy levels and is confident that they will even fall below 3% at the end of the period.
Beyond this, under the slogan ‘Close to our customers’, the bank has not missed the opportunity to try to differentiate itself in terms of consumer treatment. “Close to our clients” has been chosen as the motto of the strategic plan to highlight the centrality of the client as a fundamental axis of the plan, and proximity as the differential characteristic in the way we relate to clients,” the entity has reported. And it adds three fundamental pillars: «Firstly, increase the volume of business thanks to offering the best value proposition for customers; secondly, to evolve the service model so that it adapts as much as possible to the different needs of each one, and thirdly, to make Caixabank a benchmark in Europe in sustainability«.
However, this ‘closeness’ to people does not imply face-to-face attention in all cases, but rather giving each client the type of relationship that best suits their needs and profile. That is why the bank already expects the following distribution of relations with its users by the end of 2022: 29% omnichannel (face-to-face manager and active use of digital channels); 22% remote manager; 19% imagine; 18% physical preference exclusively; 8% digital 100% (apart from imagin); and 5% other mostly omnichannel groups (companies and other specialized networks, Private Banking, Institutions).
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