la Caixa |
la Caixa (Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona), ("Caixa" is the catalan translation of "Caja") is the leading European savings bank and the third largest Spanish financial group by results. The bank is the result of the merger, in 1990, of the Caja de Pensiones, established in 1904, and the Caja de Barcelona, established in 1844. The Group has the largest branch network in Spain, consisting of more than 5400 offices. ”la Caixa” is the top card issuer in the Spanish market, with over 10.3 million cards in circulation and a market share of 17.7%. In terms of point of sale (POS) terminals, ”la Caixa” is the market leader with a network of 169,966 units and a 21.2% share of retail outlet turnover. ”la Caixa” has 3 international branches (Poland, Romania and Morocco) and 10 representative offices. In 2010 ”la Caixa” opened its first representative offices in Delhi (India) and Dubai (UAE). The other representative offices are in London, Paris, Milan, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Beijing. The company aims to open new branches in Algeria, Egypt and Singapore in 2011. "la Caixa" works closely with immigrant groups in Spain and finance social integration projects to improve the quality of life of these groups. Since 1997, the bank has donated more than 7.0 million euro to development projects in Latin America and Africa. The Caixa also offers a special card enabling Latinamerican and North African immigrants to transfer money to their native country directly from a cashpoint. The Caixa has one of the best online banking facilities available in Spain. The ”la Caixa” website provides access to Linea Abierta (https://loc1.lacaixa.es), an online management tool for financial products, which is available in 19 languages and has more than 850 different functionalities. Over 6.6 million customers have signed up for this service, 3.3 million of which are operational users. Criteria CaixaCorp is the subsidiary encompassing practically all of the ”la Caixa” Group’s investee portfolio. Criteria CaixaCorp holds the following ownership interests in international financial institutions: 20% of GF Inbursa, 10.1 % of Erste Group Bank, 15.2% of Bank of East Asia, 20.8% of Boursorama (a French financial group belonging to the Société Générale) and 30.1% of Banco BPI (4th major Portuguese private financial group). Key Statistics:
Head office address: La Caixa Branches Outside SpainThe Representation Offices in Europe, i.e. Spanish desks, provide European companies with information on the products and services of “la Caixa” to cover their financial requirements in Spain. They also assist Spanish companies and provide them with the advice they need to develop their business in Europe. Representation Offices cannot conduct banking operations in the country where they are based. They act as a trade resource and a support for the business activity of the network of branches dealing with companies that operate in these countries.
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