The world’s best bank transformation 2021: CaixaBank clinches the Spanish crown

After merging with Bankia, CaixaBank has become the undisputed champion of Spanish retail banking. At a time when the sector is facing profound challenges, it’s already on the way to realizing crucial cost savings. Euromoney talks to executive chairman José Ignacio Goirigolzarri and chief executive Gonzalo Gortázar about this transformational merger.

When Gonzalo Gortázar first met José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, the two of them could never have imagined that, many years later, they would lead a new Spanish national banking champion together. Back then, around the turn of the millennium, Gortázar was an M&A banker at Morgan Stanley and Goirigolzarri was his client, leading BBVA’s purchases of banks across Latin America – most notably Bancomer, now Mexico’s biggest bank.

This was a time when European banks enjoyed better valuations than their emerging market peers.

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