Transformation at CaixaBank

CaixaBank is nominated in the Transformative Innovator of the Year category at the Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2025. We asked the bank to present its strategy and actions in terms of transformation.

What transformation strategy has your organization led in recent years?

CaixaBank has demonstrated its leadership capability by exceeding 2022-2024 Strategic Plan targets (19.4% ROTE > 12%) and successfully integrating Bankia’s franchise, achieving IT integration in 7 months. This has solidified its top position in retail financial services in Spain, with market shares between 25-30% in all main products and segments.

This success is due to coordinated transformations aimed at providing sustainable, long-term value to shareholders and aligning with stakeholders' expectations. These include:
•    Enhancing specialized and personalized customer attention through a unique physical distribution platform with 4,111 branches, 46,254 employees, and 12,334 ATMs in Portugal and Spain.
•    Modernizing digital channels to improve customer experience and boost digital sales.
•    Investing in technology to enhance efficiency, resilience and service quality, leveraging AI and cloud computing.
•    Streamlining processes to improve efficiency and flexibility.
•    Promoting a culture that prioritizes people and collaboration, balancing upskilling of existing workforce with hiring new talent in new technical domains.


What prompted this strategic transformation?

The strategic transformation was driven by both challenges and opportunities. On one hand, we faced initial unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, such as negative Euribor until April 2022, rapidly evolving customer preferences, and the emergence of competitive threats, from big tech companies to neo-banks. On the other hand, we identified opportunities in the growing importance of ESG factors in customer decision-making, our distinctive customer base and branch network, and our excellent reputation in society.

Beyond this context-specific strategic assessment, we firmly live by our mission “to contribute to the financial well-being of our customers and to the progress of society.” This commitment drives us to remain attentive to the needs of society. Among other actions, we closely collaborate with our main shareholder, ”la Caixa” Foundation, whose 2025 budget amounts to €655 million, with 60% dedicated to social transformation programs, such as fighting against child poverty or promoting labor integration for vulnerable groups.

What have been the most significant changes implemented, and how were they led?

CaixaBank has undertaken a comprehensive transformation strategy, marked by the adoption of advanced digital platforms, of cutting-edge technologies and of AI to personalize customer services, boost efficiency, strengthen resiliency and evolve customer attention models.

A key highlight is the 5-year "Cosmos" plan, which channels a €5 billion investment into best-in-class technology and the renewal of legacy applications. Generative artificial intelligence, a cornerstone of this plan, enhances conversational and assessment capabilities across the commercial network and customer support platforms, among other use cases. Additionally, the bank has revamped its digital channels to improve customer experience and boost digital sales, catering to the growing preference for self-service and immediacy.

Leadership and change management are pivotal in fostering a culture of continuous improvement, transformation and innovation. By providing a strategic vision, generating the sense of urgency, disseminating best practices, and empowering employees with tools like Copilot licenses, CaixaBank ensures sustained excellence and innovation.


What unique or key transformation practices do you follow to ensure success?

CaixaBank employs several key transformation practices to maximize impact and speed. These include Agile Development for rapid product and service launches, DevOps for efficient project management, and collaborations with fintech startups to leverage innovative solutions. The bank balances internal development with best-of-breed cloud solutions.

Strategic partnerships with global leaders, such as the alliance with Google Cloud, enhance data analytics and AI capabilities at scale. Since 2007, CaixaBank has awarded the “Emprendedor XXI” awards, the most prominent recognition for Spanish and Portuguese start-ups, to identify and sponsor disruptive innovations. Additionally, the bank's extensive footprint and specialized segments, such as DayOne, AgroBank, and Hotels & Tourism, enable the deployment of specific value-add solutions and ecosystems to address emerging customer needs.

These practices ensure CaixaBank remains at the forefront of the competitive financial landscape and successfully implements its transformation strategy.

How has your workforce been engaged and transformed through this journey?

Being one permanent pillar of our Strategic Plans, the development, retention and attraction of talent has been the goal of many programs at the Group, adapting the contents to specific context (e.g. post-merger integration, AI adoption, etc.) and employee groups.

Among HR programs successfully implemented in the recent past have been: (i) the Development by Skills, our professional development model, allowing us to map hard and soft required skill set with the actual levels for every position, establishing individual development plans; and (ii) the equivalent program for executives, following our leadership model (with the “AHEAD” acronym).

In addition, the “Changemakers” program, currently comprising around 600 individuals, is being key to adopt new ways of working at CaixaBank by involving people from various teams and areas, adapting tools and use cases to their reality. These constitute a community where learning, best practice sharing and collaboration flows, with centralized dynamization and support.


What measurable outcomes demonstrate the success of your transformation?

The success of CaixaBank's transformation is tracked and demonstrated by the over-delivery in the 2022-2024 Strategic Plan Targets: from a financial perspective, cost-to-income ratios of 39% (<48% initial target), RoTE amounting to 17% (>12%) and from a sustainable finance perspective:  funds mobilization reaching the 74.7 Bn€ (>64 Bn€) and 420,000 microcredits, being the leading micro-lender in Europe.

The Group is also ahead in terms of digital adoption, with 12 million digital clients within a total customer base of 20 million and innovative projects, which has enabled the Group to be awarded by different institutions and be selected by the European Commission to be part of product development working groups.