CaixaBank, S.A. (), formerly Criteria CaixaCorp, is a Spanish multinational

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

company. CaixaBank is based in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, with operative offices in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. It is Spain's third-largest lender by market value, after

Banco Santander Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group ( , , ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Santander, with operative offices in Madrid. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres ...

and

BBVA Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (), better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Bilbao, with operative offices in Madrid. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, ...

. CaixaBank has 5,397 branches to serve its 15.8 million customers, and has the most extensive branch network in the Spanish market. It is listed in the

Bolsa de Madrid (; Madrid Stock Exchange) is the largest and most international of Spain's four regional stock exchanges (the others are located in Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao) that trade shares and convertible bonds and fixed income securities, and both g ...

and is part of the

IBEX 35 The IBEX 35 (IBerian IndEX) is the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid, Spain's principal stock exchange. Initiated in 1992, the index is administered and calculated by Sociedad de Bolsas, a subsidiary of Bolsas y Mercados Espa� ...

. The company consists of the

universal bank A universal bank is a type of bank which participates in many kinds of banking activities and is both a commercial bank and an investment bank as well as providing other financial services such as insurance. These are also called full-service ...

ing and

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

activities of the

La Caixa La Caixa (), also known as the "La Caixa" Foundation (), is a not-for-profit banking foundation based in Spain, with its headquarters in Barcelona since March 2025. Originally a savings bank (''caja''), it reorganized in the 2000s and 2010s: I ...

group, the telecommunications company

Telefónica , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

and its holdings in several other financial institutions. CaixaBank has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of

European Banking Supervision European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is re ...

in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

History

The firm was formed in 2007 as Criteria CaixaCorp, a publicly traded vehicle for La Caixa's shareholdings and investments in both industrial and financial services companies. At the time of its 2007 debut, the Criteria CaixaCorp

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

was the largest-ever in Spain. The company was promoted to the

index in January 2008. A 2011 restructuring of the companies of the group saw Criteria renamed CaixaBank as La Caixa's banking and insurance activities were merged into it. At the same time most of the industrial stakes held by Criteria (including Grupo Port Aventura, Grupo Agbar,

Gas Natural Naturgy Energy Group S.A''.'', formerly ''Gas Natural Fenosa'' (), is a Spanish multinational natural gas and electrical energy utilities company, which operates primarily in Spain. The company's administrative headquarters are in Barcelona, whil ...

, and

Abertis Abertis Infraestructuras, S.A. () is a Spanish worldwide corporation engaged in toll road management. The company is headquartered in Madrid. The company runs over 8,600 kilometres of toll roads in the world. In October 2018, it was acquired by I ...

) were transferred out of the firm to the new entity Criteria CaixaHolding, 100% owned by La Caixa. CaixaBank retained stakes in Repsol YPF and Telefónica as well as all of its holdings in other financial services companies. On 26 March 2012 CaixaBank announced its intention to merge with Banca Cívica, valuing Civica at €977 million. The merger was completed in the 3rd quarter of the year and created the largest bank in Spain. On 27 November 2012, CaixaBank announced its plan to buy nationalized bank Banco de Valencia after Spain's bank restructuring fund FROB injected €4.5 billion into Banco de Valencia. The FROB also assumed losses of up to 72.5% for a period of ten years in certain assets held by Banco de Valencia. On 26 September 2013, CaixaBank approved the sale of its real estate unit Servihabitat to a joint venture between the bank and private equity fund Texas Pacific Group (TPG) for an initial price of €310 million. CaixaBank's parent company, financial group La Caixa, said it estimated it would bring in €317 million in capital gains from the deal. In June 2014 CaixaBank's Board of Directors appointed Gonzalo Gortázar as their new CEO, having approved the resignation by mutual consent of Juan María Nin as Deputy Chairman and CEO. In his first interview since becoming CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar stated "There are a number of priorities for CaixaBank. The first one is dealing with the last legs of the crisis. We want to normalize the balance sheet and we want to normalize funding costs." On 6 October 2017, the bank announced its decision to move its legal headquarters to

as a response to political uncertainty in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. A few days later the bank decided to also move its fiscal domicile to Valencia. On 4 September 2020, it was confirmed that CaixaBank and

Bankia Bankia () was a Spanish financial services company that was formed in December 2010, consolidating the operations of seven regional savings banks, and was partially nationalized by the government of Spain in May 2012 due to the near-collapse ...

are negotiating for a potential merger. The merger would create the biggest domestic bank in Spain with assets under management of €650 billion. The acquisition of

by CaixaBank was finalised in spring 2021 and created the third-largest Spanish banking group.

2008–2013 Spanish financial crisis

The Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB), a banking bailout and reconstruction program initiated by the Spanish government in June 2009, facilitated the merger between CaixaBank and Banco de Valencia on 27 November 2012. With competitors such as Banco Santander SA with 4,752 Spanish branches, CaixaBank announced it is conducting a "gradual process" of adjusting its branch networks on 9 January 2013. CaixaBank SA sold 13.1 billion pesos of shares in Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB to both bolster trading in the Mexican lender controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim and replenish money lost amid Spain's property crash.

Shareholders

Following the merger of state-owned

and private CaixaBank, Criteria Caixa (and, therefore, the "la Caixa" Foundation) held 30.012% of the bank. On the other hand, the

Government of Spain The government of Spain () is the central government which leads the executive branch and the General State Administration of the Kingdom of Spain. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the Ministers; the prime minister has the ...

, through the

FROB {{Short pages monitor