CaixaBank will reduce 800 offices, 17% of the total, in three years'

CaixaBank will reduce 800 offices, 17% of the total, in three years'

The entity, which will maintain the thousand of rural branches, anticipates an "inevitable" cut in staff and does not rule out that the judicial conflicts of its clients go further.

    CaixaBank plans to undertake a significant closure of branches in the next three years to leave the number of branches by 3,640 in 2021. This drainage will mean the closure of "more than 800 offices" according to the estimates included by the entity in the Strategic Plan that will be presented to investors in London this Tuesday. When the operation materializes, it will mean a reduction of 17% with respect to the network that the financial entity now has.

   However, this measure will not have the same effect in all the places where the bank now operates. The biggest reduction of offices will come between those distributed in the cities . The cut in this "urban" area, as the strategic plan presented by its president, Jordi Gual, and CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, in London, will be of more than 40% compared to the current novel that sets this network in 3,100 branches today.

However, CaixaBank will maintain its current level of presence in rural areas, where the bank has just over a thousand offices that it does not plan to close. These are offices of five employees or less located in municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants, which "fulfill an important task of financial inclusion", explained Gortázar during the presentation of the plan.

And at the same time, the restructuring of offices will mean an extension of the Store branch model in cities to go from the current 285 to the more than 600 in the year 2021 . These are points of attention more focused on the advice and management of the patrimony of the clients, discarding the model of the offices to make operative, since every time a greater use of Internet with the bank registers. "We see no opposition between the digital and the presnecial, but complementary," clarified Gortázar.

The rate of branch closures has accumulated to almost 900 closed in the last four years, 16% less, and more than 3,200 (a drain of 42%) in the last decade, as a result of the crisis.

With the new forecasts, the CEO of CaixaBank has acknowledged the "inevitable reduction of staff" that should be undertaken by the entity in the next three years, but did not want to quantify how many workers would have to leave the group. "We will seek with trade unions the best way to face this reality," said Gortázar, who has pointed out that the percentage of people leaving will be "substantially lower" than the 17% in which offices will be closed. At present, the CaixaBank group has more than 37,511 workers between Spain and Portugal (through the Portuguese entity BPI).

The renewed strategic plan of CaixaBank foresees, among other objectives, reaching a return of 12% within three years, as well as maintaining the distribution of dividends ('pay-out') in the environment of 50% within a bet that will focus , among other aspects, in digitization.

However, those responsible for the entity have acknowledged that these calculations have had to contemplate the judicial litigation scenario facing the group, and the entire banking sector, as a result of conflicts such as the floor clauses, or recently the problem of the Tax on Documented Legal Acts. Far from giving up legal resolutions that impact on their accounts, the president, Jordi Gual, has admitted that the calculations of the strategic plan have a "prudent tone" in case the litigation "does not fall or even was increasing" in the next years. "It is likely that this situation will continue in the near future," Gortázar added.

They do so aware that there are still many judgments for failing, which can go against them, like the one that Adicae won last week through the macrocause that it presented against the entire sector due to the limitation of mortgage rates. In addition, the extrajudicial mechanism for the return of land clauses is still open, and more than 200,000 cases are pending against the sector in the specific courts authorized to expedite this conflict.

Mortgages do not finish up
Among the levers that CaixaBank executives want to take into account to reach their three-year targets, the advance of the mortgage market is never mentioned at all. In this field, the entity has also wanted to be "prudent" , aware that it still has a greater volume of mortgages that amortize capital than those it grants. "We do not expect very strong credit growth in the system," said Gortázar, who has indicated that they maintain the same forecast as hitherto by the deleveraging process in which families are still immersed.

Therefore, it has conditioned any mortgage growth "as long as interest rates go up" in the coming years. But even in this case they expect these increases to be "little by little" from the ECB. The entity has not incorporated any type of impact on the accounts due to having to assume the mortgage tax now and they have anticipated that they will modulate the offer - they already pay all the expenses, including the appraisal - depending on what the competition does.

Where they do want to center a good part of their growth is in the consumer credit , a business whose forecast of increase would be between 6% and 7% per year until 2021. They will do so despite the fact that domestic demand can be moderated by the slowdown of the Spanish economy. But even with this circumstance, they consider that "there is still room for good domestic demand financed," said Gortázar. It is concealed that the current levels are lower than those of consumer credit in other EU countries, despite warnings from the Bank of Spain about the "accelerated" rise in delinquency in this segment.

Other areas where CaixaBank intends to grow are focused on long-term savings, credit to companies, insurance, means of payment and the BPI business. Also to foresee a "high" investment and transformation effort and a considerable reduction of problem assets - 40% less in three years, with 7 billion euros.

The president of the entity has also acknowledged that if interest rates do not rise to the extent that the group expects, although it will be slowly, the profitability will not be 12% but 10% in 2021 , which would be a impact of about 200 basis points.