Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I welcome you in my name, on behalf of the Board of Directors of this General Shareholders' Meeting, which is being held in Valencia, where we have our headquarters. I would like to express my gratitude for everybody present and those who are seeing us through telematic means and those who are present physically. According to what is set forth in the statutes, the Board of Directors has allowed our delegates to connect and to participate through our remote electronic connection and therefore exercise all of their rights thereby participating. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders will be able to be informed to delegate votes remotely long distance, and that they have had all possibilities to communicate this to the board and its counselors.
We have adopted the sanitary measures to carry out this general shareholders meeting according to the laws and bylaws and in the interest, of course, of public health. This AGM has been called to approve the 2022 annual accounts and will proceed according to the points on the agenda. The secretary will refer to all our material published concerning this call to this meeting. Mr. Óscar Calderón will speak, the secretary. The agreement was the call was done on the webpage on the CNMV webpage. And it was also registered on the mercantile official mercantile document for such communications. That was also published on the corporate webpage, which affects the corporate laws, corporate law publication procedures. That was done according to the terms it's supposed to be done.
All our reports regarding management have been made available according to European guidelines or in compliance with European guidelines. That's also placed on the corporate page of CaixaBank. All people attending were informed, and the QR codes were prepared for that. Through our personal devices, communications have been made available, and through our webpage. Any other further clarifications can be requested. We have shareholders here live and also connected telematically. Everything is being conducted according to the terms and conditions that were announced and publicized for this AGM. Those who have not already done so, they can send their requests according to the appropriate channels, contact channels, until the intervention time for each shareholder finishes.
I still have time to make contact through the appropriate channels of communication. This can be done through the corporate webpage. The message can only be 7,500 characters long maximum, any message. If the communication, at the beginning of their address or their communication, the purpose of that communication has to be spelled out clearly to the board, and they have to provide appropriate identification or through their representatives. Also, their access to the room is available by showing the appropriate ID card for access. If the shareholder wants their intervention to be recorded, they will have to hand in to the public notary who will proceed with that request. That will have to be done according to the rule.
They will have five minutes to do that. This will apply for shareholders connected via the platform. They have to follow and comply with all sanitary measures that were published. If any participant needs help of any kind, they can address themselves to officials here to assist them. All requests for information or clarification, telematic or live, will be answered during the AGM or answered in writing. The voting procedure, which after the reading of each proposal, the president will declare a procedure for answering and dealing with that matter in the appropriate manner, without prejudice to what is set forth on the corporate webpage. That will be totally gathered up on the webpage reports.
Representatives of shareholders are here, and they will be able to vote in representation of their shareholders. I believe some have already done so, and they can do so also on the telematic assistance platform that's been made available for this. This time for that will be duly indicated during the AGM. Votes in favor will be reflected as those who are duly participating. There will be provision made for those who are abstaining. Those who want to cast an opposing vote will be able to do so on the lateral side table, where such votes will be deposited and names be recorded until all these different steps and opportunities to vote for and against will be indicated accordingly.
The telematic assistance platform will be used for all these voting aspects and also for the setting up of proposals. They can do so through the telematic assistance mechanisms which have been made available for shareholders. They can also directly approach the tables on the side which have officials. A new register of proposals cannot be formulated before. If there would be an electronic problem or information data problem, the procedures would resume once the electronic system would be reestablished. That has been prepared for, and that's been. We are providing for the reestablishment of the IT systems.
Once the board has established those shareholders attending, duly processed and their representatives, and also in representation of shareholders who are voting telematically, that will be clearly spelled out, who is participating. There are 20,450. That's 6.136 billion. That's 76% of all the capital equity that we have. Given that the AGM is gonna be celebrated on the second call, it is declared that it has been validly constituted and can therefore proceed according to the social company statutes and according to the corporate laws of Spain.
The definitive quorums will be read out much later, and up to five days they can be consulted on the webpage, and there will be complete account made of that. The table is comprised by myself, Mr. Óscar Calderón de Oya, who acts as the president and secretary of the AGM board table. All of the members who are part of the board of directors are participating today on the table. Various appointments and people named John Reed, who is assisting telematically in real-time. At the same time, the first vice secretary of the board is present as set forth in the rules and statutes, and that is set forth in the corporate laws of Spain.
The board of directors has also requested the presence of a notary public to keep track of proceedings officially. That's Don Juan Bover and Juan Bover. In compliance with what is set forth in the current legislation, I ask formally if there are any reservations for those participating and concerning the capital, the equity amount. Should there be any shareholder claiming anything, they can make use of the platform or directly to express any reservation they may have. They would be asked to do so in writing at the email, which is ista.asistentes.j m@caixabank.com. They can also approach the notary public table, which is positioned on the side of the room. Thank you. I will now present my report.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Well, first of all, I'd like to reiterate my gratitude for your participation, assistance at the AGM, for those who are here physically and those who are participating telematically. An AGM is always an important meeting point. For this particular meeting and for the whole team involved, it's gonna be a very special meeting because we're gonna be presenting the first accounts after the fusion that we went through. It's inevitable of the merger. It's, of course, you know, we will of course mention the situation in Ukraine. It was unimaginable that this could happen in Europe in the third decade of the 21st century, but unfortunately, it's a reality. Of course, there's gonna be large big consequences, and we are, of course, before a huge human drama, thousands of mortal victims, deaths.
From CaixaBank, we are extending our collaboration to help the affected war victims. In the ATM sector, we have facilitated transfer of money without cost towards Ukraine. Users for that purpose can use CaixaBank automatic tellers for free. We are collaborating with various NGOs to help the affected people. We have established in the whole of our territory facilities to send medication and other products. We sent 10 buses to bring 400 people to Spain to safety to find a new horizon in their lives. The entity has also supported volunteers. We express therefore our social commitment to those in need. We are therefore proud of what our entity is doing. I extend my gratitude to all the people collaborating in that task due to the war.
We hope that the war will be over as soon as possible. In the meantime, we will continue to extend help to this very urgent need. Going back to the agenda of the day, I'll go into two different parts. First, I'll do a brief look at the 2021 financial year, and then the management, and then we'll discuss reflections that I've had about 2022. After my presentation, we'll do a deep analysis of how the business has been going and how we'll put it forward for your consideration. Having presented the first accounts, which has positioned us as a high-standing financial group in the society in Spain and Portugal.
From the financial point of view, the merger has enabled us to attain our three objectives. Give ourselves a critical mass, make a unique banking model, and also being closer to society, families, and to business in general. We have an even greater ambition, and that is to lead the transformation within the banking sector. This transformation should be with a brand promotion that's gonna be unique and tailor-made for families and companies. That would be to complete the merger. The timeline, as this timeline shows, we have proceeded with the various steps. It's important to do it quickly. We imparted velocity, and we had to do it quickly. This we have done. The first AGM after was the 14th of May, 2021.
There we had already a very good plan set up for the succeeding steps. In less than a year, all the changes have happened, and we are presenting a reality. It's here. We have started the process. It's gone fast. It's gone solidly and well. The integration has been successful over recent months. All the different steps, stages have been accomplished, also at technological level. We contemplated the exit of over 6,400 employees on a voluntary basis. Most of those exits, 86% of them have already left. Then we had a perfect technological integration from the 12th to 15th of November 2021. That went really smoothly.
We managed to deal with 2.5 million digitized documents in that short period, and that's already been accomplished, up to 80% accomplished. In the first part of this exercise, we have reordered the alliances with our partners. It's gone well. There have been many goals that have been accomplished, and we've done it with humility. We have completed in a record time the biggest merger and integration in Spanish banking history. In all mergers, of course, dealing with offices, there was a moment that the indices of quality of service deteriorated. Of course, our clients had to get used to the new entity, the new structure. There were areas and groups that were particularly affected.
At the same time, unfortunately, we had another presence of the Omicron coronavirus wave. We nonetheless were able to go ahead with an excellent response in those complex moments. Thanks to that effort, we were able to offer great improvement in the service back to normality, in fact. We were compatible with you know what we wanted to go ahead with. You know, maintain our commercial muscle, and we did that with success also with BPI in Portugal.
Thanks to the great work of the whole team, we were able to have a EUR 5.2 billion profit, excluding the costs derived from the merger itself, and that was a costly process, giving us EUR 2.35 billion net, which is a 71% increase from last time. I'm not gonna go into the analysis of those particular specific results, but that will be done, of course, later with the subsequent speakers. After the ECB's announcement recommending the payout of dividends, we're happy to report that to our shareholders. That was put up to the board of directors, and therefore, an agreement for a dividend payout was agreed upon.
Giving us a 0.146 payout margin, percent payout margin of as a cash dividend payout. With this payment, the remuneration for the shareholder for 2021, that would be EUR 1.1179 billion , which is adjusted for the impact of the pandemic. It is in accordance with the dividend payout policy, and 50%-60% of the consolidated benefits were made available for dividend payout. This was the intention of CaixaBank, but of course, subject to the rules and regulations, and also in forecasting what was gonna happen in 2022. We feel that we met our objectives. Ladies and gentlemen, with all these proposals, we are now. You will be receiving these payouts.
From the moment of announcement of the merger, each share of CaixaBank has gone up by 73%, which is a substantial 73%. In other real terms, that presupposes a 21% increment. There has been, ladies and gentlemen, a revaluation, an upscaling of the value, and considering that the IBEX figure has gone down by 3%. I would like to move to the whole question of our management model. This model is based on four pillars. Excellent corporate governance, happy clients in the center of our business. This is only possible with a committed team working with us, and all of this is bound together with a commitment towards society. With corporate governance, it means that it is.
To have good corporate governance is a sine qua non condition of excellence if things are gonna be working properly. You have an excellent group of excellent board members, which 60% are independent directors, and 40% of them are, in fact, women who have a great and demonstrated professional trajectory. The ESG agency, ISS ESG, has given us the number one quality score in the world, highest ranked by ISS ESG. We have obtained the AENOR Good Corporate Governance Certificate. That's A-E-N-O-R, AENOR. Our objective is to maintain our high level of excellence in the service and content. I stress the importance of good corporate governance.
In 2021, we undertook a series of modifications, which were, I think, well thought of and successful in accordance with good governance practices. Now I would like to point out some things for your consideration at this AGM. For the suppression of the idea of having the president's casting vote. This would mean better standards of good corporate governance. We would like to update secondly, the remuneration policy, modernize it, update it, and simplify it. But still applying the limits, which would mean amplifying or extending from one to three years the period of limitation for the transmission of shares. From one to three years. Also in the context of controlling salary rises, our new remuneration policy means keeping them at bay for the time being.
I inform you any increment in remuneration will have to be approved previously by the AGM of shareholders. This is based on the policy itself and the evolution that we wanna see for the company and in the interests of all of you, the shareholders.
Second pillar of our model is the customer. Only the best system justifies our model, our activity. Without their trust, the sustainability of our project would be absolutely a void concept, a misconstruction. That is why our commercial business has the customer at its core. Thanks to that, we are present in more than 2,000 municipalities, and we have the most extensive network of ATMs throughout the territory, with a firm commitment of not leaving behind those that are suffering most, because in some municipalities, we are the only branch. We are keeping in constant contact with our customers. We provide an excellent service to them, regardless of their age, digital literacy, or the channel they choose to communicate with us.
In that regard, this year, we kept on adapting and reinforcing our commercial model with the aim of improving the services provided to those that are least digitized. That is the senior collective. We have 4 million customers, and they are a priority to us. The third pillar of our management is the firm commitment with our society. I would like to underscore our commitment with the environment and also the support to financial inclusion and social action. In the field of the environment and environmental protection, we keep on working for the sustainability through the optimization of the consumption, and also we are developing new bank products that contribute to the achievement of SDGs. As a consequence, we got the highest rate by the main sustainability entities or bodies, and we were European leaders in ESG emissions last year.
In fact, in last financial year, 75% of debt issuances were ESG issuances. Second part of this commitment is social action and financial inclusion. Social commitment lies at the DNA of our bank. It was at the origin of our creation, and it is expressed through our financial actions and our social network. Within this section, I would like to highlight five different topics. Continued support to society through our different. We have the highest microcredit bank in Europe. It has a credit pool based mainly on vulnerable or disadvantaged families and micro SMEs. We also have a foundation. We are absolutely convinced that contributing to the best education of our citizens is the best way to fight inequalities. We do that at CaixaBank, and the only mission is to foster dual vocational training.
We are becoming a benchmark in that sense. Social action of our branches channeled last year funds by "la Caixa" Foundation that provided support to nearly 7,000 projects. We're still committed with contributing to social housing solutions for people at risk of social exclusion. 3,000 and 13,000 rented flats. Our commitment is expressed in many ways, among others, our network of volunteers. Thanks to their action and their commitment, 179 people were supported last financial year. Our team is the foundation for everything we do. All the accomplishments I've been defining, none of them would have been possible without the firm commitment of all the members of our team. With the main ambition of creating a project based on meritocracy, fostering diversity as a base of our progress.
A project with very demanding business goals, because we want to be a highly performing organization, but at the same time, being close to our customers and impregnated by solidarity. A project where each and every one of us has something to provide us, and we feel a real sense of belonging. We feel really proud of the model and the values CaixaBank represents. As to develop this model, you, the shareholders, are a key part. You are the owners, the real owners of this adventure. On my behalf, on behalf of the board and the whole team of CaixaBank, we would like to thank you for your confidence, your commitment, and your contributions. A good example of those contributions is the phenomenal work carried out by a consultative team, and I would like to expressly thank them for their effort.
An example of commitment is the support of the "la Caixa" Foundation with all the social activities, which I personally value really a lot. I can assure you, the shareholders, that our main objective is to merit your trust and confidence. I move on to the third part of my presentation, where I would like to share with you some thoughts about forecasts and perspectives for the current financial year. The economic environment before the invasion, where we started the year, was clearly positive. Different threats were apparent, but we managed to grow activity consumption. The invasion of Ukraine was a turning point, for the worse, unfortunately. We hope the recovery to continue, but there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the European and worldwide economy.
A good proof of that is the high, really high volatility we are experiencing in financial markets and especially commodities markets, mainly energy, raw materials. The GDP growth has gone down 1.3 points, from 5.5% to 4.2%, we forecast for the current financial year. Our expectations of average annual inflation amount to 6.8% for 2022. I believe the effects of this invasion go beyond the short-term impact on our own economies. Undoubtedly, what we are living and experiencing would entail geopolitical and transformations that will deeply affect all of us, especially Europe. The European Union was suddenly aware of the need to be more united than ever. We need to strengthen their strategic autonomy in the fields of energy, defense, or technology.
We need to highlight that the response given to this challenge has been very positive so far. These changes will affect many companies' strategies, because the paradigms they were based on are subjected to a great shift. Within this context of high uncertainty, I would like to express that the Spanish banking sector has a completely different position compared to where we were in the last financial crisis. Within the sector, the starting position of CaixaBank is fully different for many reasons. We've become leaders of the market in turnover. In the last 10 years, our bank multiplied by 2.5 its activity, reaching really high market shares. We have a lot of liquidity, a lot of reserves, which is an indispensable element in times of volatility.
We are really solvent, with capital ratios that are higher, much higher than what the regulations require, so we will be able to face challenges in the future. We need to keep on working hard, not only to defend these values, to re-strengthen those things, those positive. We are facing the future in a calm way because we are happy and satisfied with our excellent and clean financial situation. With this, I would like to conclude my presentation. This is the second time I attend this board. I would like to share with all of you, dear shareholders, a very important message, because uncertainties are many, and the economic risks are very present. Despite everything, I'm an optimistic person, because this is.
We have achieved the highest integration after the merger in Spain, in the history of Spain, but we are facing the future based on a strong position, financial position. We have a unique model, a really high commercial capacity that we need to value as it merits, and especially because we have an excellent team of employees. This is the keys to success of any project. Highly committed, highly vocational, and members of that incredible team. Undoubtedly, this is the best contribution we can do from CaixaBank to support the social and economic recovery of our country. Nothing of this would be possible without your trust, dear shareholders. A trust I would like to thank again. Thanks for your attendance and your attention. That's all on my part.
Who said you cannot change the world from a branch?
Who can't contribute to society? At CaixaBank, we work to do more and more for each and every one of our branches, of our offices. Last year, the effort made by thousands of employees became a support to more than 6,000 social entities through different alliances and collaborations with ”la Caixa” Foundation. Thus, we managed to transform our everyday work in more than 2,000 tons of basic foodstuffs. One of our main commitments was to be close to the people we serve. That is why we are supporting disadvantaged families, and most especially to children. This led us to distribute 126,000 kits of school materials in hundreds of schools throughout the country. This way, each Christmas, thousands of boys and girls can make their dreams true.
At CaixaBank, we propose financial solutions that are adapted to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, and we accompany social entities with services specifically created for them, such as free of charge platforms for donations, because we are deeply committed with helping others, those that are most in need. Our free time is devoted to solidarity, to volunteer programs, so as to share our values in order to work with a more fair, equitable society. We work for people and for the planet by fostering support and aid for, in the favor of sustainable development and environmental protection. Our employees, female and male employees, are the first ones to be with those that need them most.
They do that at every branch by creating opportunities, improving their most immediate environments, their neighborhoods, working side by close to the people, to our society, in big things and small things, always. Whenever somebody needs us, we are there. That is our commitment. We want our work to become something more, and that is at the core of what we do at CaixaBank. We'll always be close to those that need us most, wherever they are. I give the floor now to our CEO, Mr. Gonzalo Gortázar. He will speak now.
Dear President, dear directors, dear shareholders, good morning, everybody. It is a great pleasure to attend this board in such an important day, and also in this important well, venue, the City for Arts and Sciences in Valencia.
The chairman stated, this is a really, well, important and meaningful day. We have presented the first income statement balance sheet with very good results after the measure. This also implies that the integration has been nearly finished, and we have a strong and sound position to defend where what we will be doing and where we'll be heading within the next years, being fully aware of our new capabilities. 15 years ago, this society was listed for the first time, and we reorganized, and the banking business started to list in the stock markets. Throughout these years, our project grew and got stronger and stronger. Our capabilities are really important. Within eighfive months, we managed to integrate human teams, the commercial model, and the technological system at the different branches.
The most important operation in the history of the Spanish banking sector with a lot of success, with many accomplishments. As a consequence, we consolidate our leading position in the banking and financial sector. CaixaBank has become a European benchmark. All this coordination effort in all areas, in all spheres, allowed us to continue developing our commercial business activity in a very intense way. We are providing service to more than 20 million in Spain and Portugal. All in all, we completed a highly satisfactory year. Well, in deference to the many shareholders that speak Spanish, I will continue in Spanish. I would like to make a review to the most important aspects of the activity and the outcomes, the results of last financial years.
I will make reference to the strength of CaixaBank, with final comments and remarks about the future, what the future well can mean. I would like to highlight the excellent growth of the resources we have managed. At the end of the year, it was EUR 620 million, with an increase of 41.2% of annual variation. This includes the balance provided by Bankia, so it's noteworthy to consider the organic growth, 10.5%. Highly remarkable, considering that we went through an integration within the resources. I would like to stress long-term savings, 12.7%, includes investment funds, pension plans, and savings insurance, and it poses a really high added value. The demand of these savings products doubled in last year.
This allowed us to keep on reinforcing our positioning, and this we reach an important leading position with a market share of 29.4%. We are deeply honored and deeply happy because this is a clear sign of the trust our customers place on us. On the credit side, we closed last financial year with the private sector credit reserve of EUR 332 million, with an important share in mortgages, consumption, and business funding, 38%. Regarding organic growth, evolution in the year went upwards. We closed the fourth quarter with really important growth rates.
I would like to highlight improvements and enhancement in production in the last second part of the year, 16% and 11% respectively for businesses and private consumption, fostered and spurred by a specialized solution we launched, such as Food & Dreams, MyDreams, and MyHome. Food & Dreams, MyDreams focus on specific sectors. Solutions for our households, et cetera. The mortgages went down because they tend to be quite old, where amortizations are high, so the creation of new mortgages, although we are on the increase, it still doesn't compensate. In Portugal, the performance was great, with a growth of 8% in turnover and results, very positive results.
I would like to highlight the yearly evolution and the evolution of BPI in the last five years, since it started to be under control of CaixaBank Group. I would like to highlight three different milestones or hallmarks. Increase of activity that led to increase of market share in the main products in more than 22 percentage points. Secondly, the impulse to digitization, and at the same time, we improved and streamlined processes, channels. Last but not least, the improvement of efficiency ratio. 12 percentage point increase as a result of the increase in income, and we contained expenses. The recurring profitability is always on the increase. I would like to add very important accomplishment, the quality of the credit kept, maintained in really excellent ratios.
On the other hand, the focus of BPI on excellence, commitment with the whole society in providing the best possible service to customers. It was recognized as the highest reputation bank in Portugal. Of course, we are deeply satisfied with this success story of a cross-border operation. We started five years ago, and we are reaping the, well, the fruits of that. I would like to present the main results. Before going into details, I would like to remind you that the financial results of 2021 include Bankia's results in the last nine months of the year since, I mean, when the merger was effected. It...
In order to facilitate comparability and to be able to analyze evolutions in a more homogeneous way, I will refer to a pro forma version so as to make profiles comparable. I include the whole results and aggregating extraordinary impacts at the end, on the lower part of the income statement. I will start by what we call core income. That is the set of interest margin, commissions, and insurance income. These are the most important parts. EUR 10.9 billion, 27% more compared to 2020. Focusing on the pro forma evolution, the comparable part, there is a slight decrease of 1%, with a behavior among different lines that merits a differential analysis.
The interest margin went down 5.8%, mainly because of the fall of interest rates, a very important part of our credit portfolio that is referenced to interest rates. This negative effect in the income was compensated by the evolution of commissions that grow close to 7%, and the income from the insurance business, a growth of approaching 9%. This is the result of our strength, and it's proof that our business model is highly robust with the best possible service to the customers. I would like to underscore, we didn't increase strictly banking commissions throughout the year. They were kept stable. The growth of our commissions derives from the increase of our activity in absolute terms in the marketing of products and services.
This allowed us to increase the level of commissions, the percentage. The rest of income, that is the result of investees, non-insurance investees, other products, those minor lines go down notably, considerably affected by the high volatility level of the market and the incorporation of extraordinary outcomes and results deriving from 2020. We need to take into account that in the fourth term of 2021, we didn't include a result of our participation in Erste Bank. After the sale of 9.9% of Erste Group Bank, that sale that provided EUR 44 million responds to a strategy to concentrate our banking and strategy in our main market, that is Spain and Portugal. The moment we chose for that, this investment was really, well, good and suitable considering the worsening of economic forecast in Eastern Europe as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.
Regarding recurring expenses, this is the amount, nearly EUR 6 billion in pro forma terms, amounts to an increase of 1%, in line with our forecast and announcements. The management of expenses continued to be a priority, so in the fourth term, our expenses went down 2% because we started to, well, reap the benefits of the savings derived from the integration and merger, EUR 994 million annually. For these financial years, we expect to increase 80% of that figure. An essential aspect associated to these savings is the restructuring plan that was agreed with the trade unions last July, 6,400 voluntary exits, so as to streamline the network and avoid overlappings. We agreed a relocation program so that they find new jobs.
80% of integrations of branches, of offices, came to term already. Regarding integration of branches, they are going down according to the plan, and we recover, and we insist on our commitment on not leaving anyone behind. The integrations are taking place among branches that are really close geographically. In most cases, the distance between offices is less than 500 m. I would like to remind you that we are present in more than 2,200 municipalities, 420 of them, we are the single branch operating in those areas, and we provide coverage to other 426 municipalities through other services. After the integration of banking branch, I insist, we will have the most comprehensive business network in Spain.
It's nearly double as much as the next competitor. We will continue being really competitive. In summary, the restructuring plan, as I said in previous occasion, was absolutely necessary, reasonable, and responsible, and we are carrying it out according to our values, our principles, with very good results, and most of the exits are voluntary. Moving on to allowances, it was reducing 56% from EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 1.2 billion. This line contributes most to our results. Another way of considering the reduction of allowances is the cost of risk. That is the ratio between allowances and the average balance in the credit portfolio. It moved from 0.75% to 0.23% in 2021, a really considerable improvement for our group.
I would like to remind you that in 2020, we were really prudent and cautious considering the pandemic, so we anticipated a non-allocated provision of EUR 1.7 billion, whose main aim was to absorb possible potential deterioration in the credit side as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We made an incredible effort to make sure that those aids were given to those families and companies that needed them most. We provided more than 500,000 moratories and more than 290 ICO-guaranteed credits and loans. The good part of this is that the creditworthiness stays the same, no great deterioration, so we helped our customers without harming the balance. On the other hand, regarding ICO-guaranteed loans, those loans will pay the full quarter in.
Well, in fact, 40% of them is paying that rate. Regarding the behavior of repayment of those, most 40% is similar to the rest of the portfolio. Therefore, we need to be aware that the credit worthiness will keep on very high rates in 2020 despite the, well, complicated situation. At the end of 2021, the amount we have unassigned is over EUR 1.4 billion. We are comfortable with those reserves to absorb or to face possible setbacks in the portfolio. Considering everything, the recurring results is EUR 2.3 billion, 50% more compared to 2020. Focusing on the pro forma evolution. Obviously, 2020 was negatively impacted and affected, especially due to the pandemic.
The full result attributed to the group is EUR 4.2 million after incorporating extraordinary effects associated to the merger. We are mainly speaking about two different categories. Extraordinary expenses associated to these EUR 1.3 million net with other expenses and donations, EUR 114 million. On the other hand, the so-called bad will in the Anglo-Saxon terminology, the negative difference in the consolidation, EUR 4.3 billion.
This is an accountancy adjustment which was carried out during the merger, and does not really reflect a normal result. It's just an adjustment that we do. Now, the third key I want to talk about is the strength, the financial strength of the group, and the strength of our balance. We have contributed to the economic recovery, the post-pandemic recovery. We have reduced debt ratios by over 4 points since our merger. Our portfolio debt has been reduced, and now is in a positive value. In 2021, these aspects have reached maturity, and that 3.6% value is quite good. So the ratio of debt. We have closed the financial year with very good levels according to the CET1 ratio of 13.1%
Net equity, to use the Anglo-Saxon CET1, has been high. The adjustments and the restructuring costs took away 109 basis points. Nonetheless, we are able to add 106 basis points in the generation of organic capital. More than 100 basis points, the 100 basis point benchmark was reached. That 13.1% for the ratio of CET1 has been accomplished, if we round off that previous figure of 8.1%. That accounts for EUR 11 million, and that puts us in a very nice, very good position with the future.
In terms of liquidity, we've had a very good liquidity level of 106.35 nearly in m illion euros, and an LCR ratio of 336%. That gives us a good account of our liquidity situation. In the 79% of ESG emissions, that we reach a 79% level in those ESG emissions, which is, they are very good. That made us winners of the Bond Awards for 2021, and the Best Bank Award 2021 from Global Finance. We were well within the international parameters at a high level. 2021 has been an extraordinary year in the balance. We finished off the merger, the integration. We relaunched commercial activity.
We made a strong statement about our social commitment, and we've proceeded with that. We saw that in 2022 we executed, wishing to consolidate our position, to strengthen the economy, to give better service to our clients. This was done in a complex setting. There were many clouds on the horizon, including, of course, the recent invasion of Ukraine. Our situation is nonetheless the best in the last 10 years. We've reduced problematic assets by more than half. Income not linked to interest margin has been adjusted in a better way to guarantee us better levels of solvency. This we still have to say that our integration process, which has taken up a lot of our time, has enabled us to become a growth factor.
We have taken advantage of that, and we have surpassed even our expectations in some aspects. We cannot anticipate all movements, but it's very wise to proceed stepping on solid ground. We think that a gradual increase in interest rates will have a positive overall long-term effect. For all these reasons I've talked about, I feel that the future of the project in the future for CaixaBank is very promising. Nonetheless, of course, there will be a multitude of scenarios. We are aiming at setting up attractive propositions for clients, better quality, and they always have to be based on our best efforts from our employees, from the very first to the very last employee. We live through our employees to service our customers.
I would like to thank the shareholders for the trust you have placed in us, the whole management group at CaixaBank, and also the responsibility of choosing this project in order to reach the objectives. I would like to thank all the team of the group, which made up of 45,000 people because of their, you know, professionality, their implication, their commitment to the firm. I think with this such levels of commitment that has been shown, we'll be able to go ahead and do more. We will only have success, in my opinion, if we continue with the values we have cherished over such a long time and thinking, of course, for the benefit of society. Thank you very much for listening.
Thank you, Mr. Gortázar, for your short talk.
I will now look at corporate governance information. According to the third section of the good corporate governance, approved by the CNMV regulatory body, we will look at the most relevant corporate governance aspects presented here at the AGM. In this sense, I'm going to put forward some proposals. For example, the election of independent director and other proposals. These are in line with the best governance practices. This is also in line with the wishes of the new board of directors of CaixaBank that 60% should be independent. I feel that that represents, I believe, the majority and a diversity of knowledge, backgrounds, and training. Also, the percentage of lady directors is gonna be maintained at 40%.
In 2020, this 40% level of women directors was attained, and this is going to continue. Furthermore, for approval, there will be proposals put forward concerning the AGM rules to make more systematic how people can participate in a telematic way at the AGMs. All of this is done to enhance the way it operates. We will proceed with the good governance codes of the corporate sector. This is one of the roles or one of the pillars of the council. Information is all subject to audited information. You have this information available in the documents and the publications that were put forward to you at the call of this meeting.
We will be able also to give more detailed information based on point 15 of the order of the day, which states the modification of the regulations starting from October 2021 and also February 2022, which were aimed at getting rid of the casting vote, as I mentioned before, of the president, and to enhance the role of the president coordinator in accordance with good management and governance practices. Finally, to adopt the new order of rules within the framework of the law. On 15th of December 2021, there was an approval of the review of corporate governance. This was in line with recent legislative reforms concerning corporate governance. This is a permanent fixture in our governance policies and philosophies.
I stress the importance of good governance, and we have had received maximum gradings from various bodies for our governance practices. For example, that involves the functioning and the positioning of the transparency of the entity, the running of the AGM, utter transparency, remuneration of our directors and in terms in general governance, in all terms. In terms of the recommendations of good governance, in accordance with the good governance code, we will look in detail at the follow-up of how this code has been applied, what has been the application. Information was given on the 25th of February 2022. Information was given to the CNMV, the regulatory body of Spain. We clarified it that we totally complied.
In a number of governance rules, we comply with all of them. In another batch, we complied with five of the seven, and in another group, those compliance requirements were not applicable. We therefore have decided the new remuneration policy is called for, and it will comply with all the recommendations that were put forward. In that independent council, we are partially complying with some guidelines. Mr. Secretary will now explain the remuneration. There were 64 recommendations, and 90% of them were complied. There was non-compliance. Recommendation 62 was not complied with. The actions that were done subject to conformity based on a deferment period of five years.
This was dealing with the period, what happens at the end of that five-year period. This was dealt with in the malus clauses, Latin malus clauses, which are clawback clauses. This, in my view, is coherent as an incentive, in terms of how risks are taken and also in terms of proper sustainability. As the president said, you know, this is all still under discussion, in terms of the remuneration policy of the, you know, for the Board members. This was also reflected in the 2021 exercise. In terms of the recommendations that were partially applied and complied with, this was set forth at the meeting of the 14th of May, last 14th of May.
It was decided that there was a possibility to making certain amount of shares convertible as CaixaBank shares. This was put at level one regulatory shares. This was possible, this possibility was catered for under that regulation. In the interest of the company, it was decided that maximum flexibility had to be vested in this new body. Because these kinds of titles are not apt for proper commercialization, another formula was found to justify them. Without prejudice to this disagreement was put forward to the 2021 company's text. Discussion was made about not applying the limit in terms of the preferential nature of these assets. Discussion was done about proper procedures.
At the AGM, it was decided there could be a different, slightly different voting procedure for that particular group of affected shareholders. It was therefore decided how to deal with contradictory proposals. In any case, the transparency and the re-registration of all things would always be adequate. On the 27th, on May 27th, rules were set forth about how liberty for each director was contemplated at that meeting through him or her or their representative. In terms of recommendation number 36, they analyze the functioning of that body on an internal basis. They decided once the merger with Bankia was finished, they decided to postpone that move.
In another decision, should somebody be taken away from that particular position in the bank, a provision was made for how that person would be treated as a shareholder according to a certain share limit. This would have to be done over a two-year period. There was recommendation number two, that was based on Article 42 of commercial law. In that case, it was decided the CaixaBank board suggested a two-year period be applied, and then later a report would be delivered for that point two. Thank you. The secretary will now leave the.
Mr. President, we feel as definitive the constitution of the board as follows, and that they've been carried out accordingly in both physically and telematically, and therefore have undergone the right pathways. There are 20,473 shareholders valued at EUR 6.7 billion value in shares. That's 6.376% of the capital value of the entity. I will now hand the floor over to the Notary Public, Mr. Juan Bover.
In compliance with the rules and regulations of the mercantile laws, I ask publicly if there are any questions or doubts or opposition to the valid constitution that's been put forward here.
Should there be any opposition or query or any reservation made, this is possible through or there is a questioning of the list of people attending or participating. You can go to the email address lista.com@caixabank.es, and that will appear on the memorandum of the day. They can also approach, if not telematically, you can. There will be a sign saying official from the Notary Public. You can approach that person. They are at various points around the room. If you want your intervention to be reflected in the minutes of the day, you will have to make your intervention in writing, and that will be compared at the appropriate point in time, in due course. We will now hand the floor over to Mr. Óscar Calderón de Oya.
We will now be calling each person who has requested their intervention, and they will be able to speak from their own lecterns. Therefore, the representatives of shareholders have also had access to intervention through the platforms with assisting security. Each time a person addresses the hall of the meeting, the lectern will be cleaned for health and security reasons. We will also let you know that once a person starts the intervention or according to the provisions in the capital company's rules, the shareholder or their representative will be duly informed, as well as the AGM. Therefore, we're gonna start with the turn. Mr. Fernando Martín Urrutia will now take the floor.
Buenos días. Hello, everybody.
I request that our intervention be reflected literally in writing in the minutes. We represent small savers, small shareholders who have delegated their vote in us for us to represent them. In the initiatives that they have put forward, now we've done a follow-up of that. We have looked at the protection of the consumer. What arguments do you use to justify that you defend the floor clauses, and how are you still maintaining that case affecting thousands of consumers against the sentence from the court known as Audiencia Provincial of the 23rd of November last 23rd of November.
How do you justify that continues when the Court of Justice of the European Union in a sentence has recognized the abusive nature? As from ADICAE, we propose solutions to be put forward as we have done before. Please, solutions which are just and fair for consumers, because what you have done has not been fruitful. I think you are prolonging a resolution that is taking too long in being, you know, materializing. We hope that CaixaBank will correct the bad decisions that were taken, you know, that even happened before they were merged. You are in a position, I believe, to collaborate, to end this shameful situation of preferential shares, of subordinate shares, floor clauses. A lot of the cases are still waiting for legal resolution in the courts.
Wouldn't you think if you acted another way, you would be able to offer your clients a better image, offer the savers a better image? From ADICAE, we are not wishing to, you know, get rid of the consumer in the local bank office. This is not. It's not just about showing consumer how to operate the automatic teller outside of the bank. It's about showing consumers how to use technological resources. Yes, the AGM said that there are 4 million clients, senior clients. They are seniors. The majority, I say, need this help.
From your own data, you've given assistance to 1,600 users, but how many hours have you invested to give a minimal training or education for your other consumers? I remind you that these, you know, these are the final people affected by the long-term digitalization process. In this AGM, I think you should, you know, remind yourselves that they are the center of everything. No excuses should be given. I think by making the bank offices hours longer or even the use of automatic tellers longer, that's not really an answer. Limiting cash withdrawals to not over EUR 600. That's just not good enough.
Are you gonna take any measures, real measures, that will lead to better service for our elderly people, make the whole service more attainable, reachable?
From ADICAE, I think this online use of banking services is encouraging more fraud online because, you know, this bank and other banks cannot be mere spectators in front of this problem. This thing about sending online warnings or messages that's not effective enough. There are whole segments of the population who do not know how to exploit the opportunities online. They, in fact, can be victims online. So we feel there should be programs that incorporate these clients, these customers to financial services online and therefore avoid their exclusion, because that's what's happening, exclusion. It's about teaching the client to be in the center, not on the edge, not on the periphery. Thank you.
Mister Fernando Herrero Saiz will now take the floor.
I would like my intervention to be on the minutes. I represent the Alicante Users Association. Mr. President and directors, once again, we represent the small shareholders and savers of CaixaBank. I am from ADICAE. We have seen that you have appealed to. You've talked about the search for an excellent project to get the client in the center of things. Well, you may wish to congratulate yourselves on that, but I would like to see the more the practical outcome, more the manifestation, more than the acclaim. I think there's been a lack of advance in CaixaBank of key matters affecting consumers.
I would like to see a turn into specific measures for consumers, because I think otherwise that will work against the excellence you're always talking about. I think I would like to make note of the response that the entity has made, how people have been transferred from what offices or even taken out, how digitalization has worked in terms of inclusion, how is and also sustainability. Now, these are aspects I feel which have augmented relevance because you've now become one of the biggest entity in Spain. I think the benefits for clients have not been the same than the benefits for your own organization. In terms of conflicts with clients, when we talk about defending the financial customer, I think you need to reconsider as from.
We say this from ADICAE, how you treat your clients. I think this premeditated blockage that you're doing, this is one of the things that you do through the legal mechanism. This is, in the case of floor clauses. There have been excessive delays in sentences, in decisions. Things have been held up in the courts, and there has been incorrect restitution made to clients. I feel you are still using an antiquated business model because you are almost seeing a client as an enemy. I therefore ask you to be more coherent, more respectful to the client, and to ensure that the client is the center of your business model.
This whole thing of transferring costs to the client, compared to other entities, I feel, you know, there's a lot of much needs to be said about that. There has been, I feel I don't agree with this whole thing about that commissions have not increased. I think that would be a major discrepancy with me. I would not accept as an association this thing about the fall in interest margins. I feel that fall in margins cannot be put, you know, blamed on, you know, or even transferred to customers. I'm gonna go into more detail, but I feel I would like to make a general comment in terms of what the digital transformation means for the bank and shareholders, and also how it affects consumers.
The bank, of course, has to adapt to new times, economies of scale, savings, trying to save, but it doesn't mean you gotta leave, you know. It doesn't mean that you have to sideline hundreds of thousands of clients. You forget, you have to train enormous segments of society in digitalization. We propose a firm commitment on your part to carry out a great digitalization program to customers so that they can. I would like you to look at the sustainability and other aspects. When we talk about ESG products last year and how that affected, last back in the greenwashing, you know, I'm referring to greenwashing.
How things are coming to call everything virtually green, I think we have to be very careful, because we are dealing with the concept of sustainability, and we are looking at the environment. We have to also have a better communication with key social agents, because in that way we will be better dealing with these people's interests, rights. In that way, I feel you'll be able to better deal with the claims, the demands put on you by clients. Lastly, I think you should change. Maybe I've anticipated this, but the relationship of this board with ADICAE, I feel in past times, we feel as an association, we have been badly treated, and that needs to be much improved. Thank you very much.
We give the floor to Mr. Rafael González Ferrándiz.
To the Notary Public, I want my intervention to be on the record, in the minutes, and fully shown in the minutes. Good morning, dear shareholders, members of the Board of Directors, Mr. Chairman. I'm Rafael González, and I intervene here on behalf of the Banca Armada Campaign promoted by nine entities from Spain, together with my colleague, David Montesinos. We represent the 19 critical shareholders with a total of 23,000 shares. I will speak about two companies related to military activities at borders. Grupo Eulen and Accenture, both are part of the contracts who received assignments in the southern border for maintenance and repairing activities on different centers or temporary stay centers for immigrants, where they are systematically abused. There are violations of human rights.
Grupo Eulen is receiving more than EUR 43 million in CaixaBank's credits, has 42 contracts to manage these facilities. Apart from them, we found out that CaixaBank had nearly EUR 15 million purchased in Accenture's shares in January this year. According to the Transnational Institute report, it seems that Accenture was hired by Trump's government to help hire border agents that are responsible of putting in prison immigrants crossing the Mexico border. In that same report, it's mentioned that Accenture, together with other businesses and companies, won a framework contract of EUR 107.57 million to develop the Biometric Matching System, the BMS, a basic component in the identity systems used by the European Union so as to militarize its borders. This way, they reproduce the narrative of humanitarian.
That immigrants are a threat for security and safety within our borders. Dear Chairman, members of the board, do you really believe that it is more morally acceptable to do some image-washing campaigns, as you mention, in Ukraine, where you historically funded this war business in other countries? Just one more thing. According to the Alerta! 2021 report published by the Escola de Cultura de Pau, there were thousands of armed conflicts last year which started and perpetuated thanks to the weapons and those financial entities that fund those wars and armed conflicts.
From the Banca Armada Banks Campaign, Campaña Banca Armada, on behalf of its members and well, of sensitivity, of honesty, please stop funding those companies because they are causes serious violation of human rights in our territory and throughout the world. That's all on my part. Thank you.
I give the floor to Mr. David Montesinos García.
Señor Notario. Dear Notary, I want my statement to be included in the minutes for the record. Good morning. Good afternoon, dear shareholders, member of the board of directors, dear Mr. Chairman.
My name is David Montesinos, and I speak on behalf of the Banca Armada Campaign, Armed Bank-Banking Sector, promoted by entities throughout Spain, SETEM Federación, Justicia y Paz, L'Observatori del Deute en la Globalització, Alternativa Antimilitarista, Movimiento de Objeción de Conciencia, Nova Escenes Foundation, and Ethical Finance Foundation, Finanzas Éticas. Together with my colleague, Mr. Rafael González, we represent 29 critical shareholders that delegated a total of more than 23,000 shares. Mr. Chairman, in previous years, we denounced your financial involvement with companies that made weapons that were used in armed conflicts such as the Central African Republic or Yemen. You should feel really ashamed of using the Ukrainian conflict to clean up your image with donation campaigns on alleged altruism.
Dear president, members of the board, it is obvious that for you and for many others, there are first category, first class and second class wars. It's also apparent that those suffering the direct consequences of any armed conflict are citizens every day, you know, ordinary citizens that are forced to migrate in order to save their lives. In the transit of crossing borders, in most of the cases, they find complications, they face prejudices and many other problems. Okay. Staying closer to our borders, our southern borders in the Canary Islands, we receive people fleeing conflicts such as Libya, Sahel, Somalia, and they escape from areas that where there are armed conflicts and/or they simply aspire to live in peace and in better conditions.
When these people arrive at our borders, they are received in an inhuman way caused by the militarization and security securitization systems we have implemented in this fortress Europe idea. What role does CaixaBank play in that regard? I'm going to speak about Indra. In the period comprised between 2019 and 2021, CaixaBank invested more than EUR 4.5 million in buying bonds of that company, of Indra. Indra devotes around 27% of its production to develop military electronic systems, flight simulators, electronic defense systems, which among other things, are used to militarize borders and frontiers.
Dear President and members of the board, at the Banca Armada campaign, we've been fighting and struggling for years, and for what [Mike Mustaf] Oliver is defined as a convenience marriage between banks and weapons and arms, where banks fund armament, weapons, and weapons defend the banking business. Thus, we ask you that once and for all, you stop funding those companies that are making profit from war. That's all. Thank you.
Mr. José Javier Ballesteros Gómez has the floor.
Good afternoon. I want my literal statement to be reflected in the minutes. Good day, everybody, all the attendants. I'll start with the second part of my presentation that wasn't foreseen. I'll speak in Valencian, in Catalan. We don't have translation. They ask us to speak in Spanish, but many other people can speak.
We don't speak Catalan, so please stop speaking Catalan in AGMs, please. I am asking Mr. Gonzalo Gortázar and the others, because we cannot understand that language. Now, we move on to my topic. I'm a lawyer. Mr. José Javier Ballesteros Gómez. I'm 48 years old. I live in Pozuelo de Alarcón. It's a municipality in the north of Madrid, and we are having problem with the senior, the seniors or the elderly. They are having really many problems. They struggle when they have to do any bank transaction, but they are not considered at all. They are neglected, I mean, openly, and the staff working at the branch do not pay any attention and any consideration to them. So I offer myself. I can.
I offer my help you, so that you can confirm that this is the case, this is working. I spoke with the president, José Ignacio. I left him seven messages. I left six, seven messages in your voicemail, and you didn't give any reply. I don't know why. When you were in Bankia, we used to go for lunch, but now you are in CaixaBank and you stopped any contact with us. At least you are not paying attention to any shareholders. Please, at least just reply. I spoke to your secretary seven times. That's all on my part, because everything that had been said, it's been said. The senior collective, please do not neglect us. Do not leave us behind. I offer my help, my support for anything you need.
That's all on my part. I simply insist on using the Spanish language and secondly, to provide support to the elderly. There are many people that are part and are long-term customers of CaixaBank. That's all on my part. Thank you.
Mr. Eduardo Mestres Mataró has the floor now.
Morning. Mr. Notary, I want my intervention to be in the minutes, reflected in the minutes. My name is Eduardo Mestres Mataró. The freedom you don't know and you are not so familiar with was created many years ago. I've been living in Valencia for the last 53 years. I consider myself a Valencian. I was customer from the first day I started living here. That was in 1982. All my family, all my relatives are customers of La Caixa, have been customers of La Caixa for more than 100 years.
I move on to another topic. I want everybody to know that we are la Caixa . This is the most important value we have. These are customers. Customers are the kings and queens. They are the real owners of this bank because they deserve much more than what you are providing them with. That's all on my part. I remember something that is really nasty because you are cowards. Representatives of our workers that they were sent to the other side of the world, really, so as to prevent them from being present and part so that they were in the spotlight. Those workers outside demonstrating in here, you're really comfortable here, leaving them outside. This is not right. Not at all.
I remind you, as every year, that the bank in Valencia wanted 4.1 billion pesetas, and you were lucky that the Spanish state gave you that as a gift, as a present. I remind you of this fact every year, every single year. Those employees, those shareholders should remind you about this, that amount of money you received from the Spanish government, and you didn't give it back. Let's speak about all the your apostles, the followers of your board, receive a remuneration they do not deserve. You cannot earn that faithfully and in a dignified way. You should pay for the fact of being here. People like you should stay there with all the prestige you have acquired. You should pay for that.
The person presiding and chairing this table, for me, is not a real president, a real chairman for me. I do not recognize him as such. He wins EUR 1.6 billion per year. What did you do? We couldn't see you on any real event. You just call this AGM. You sit down comfortably on the stage, and for that, only for that, you earn EUR 1.6 billion. You don't merit, you don't deserve to be chairman, to be president of La Caixa. Our foundation, La Caixa, is living on the benefits, given 30% of the benefits are derived to the foundation, and you don't pay any attention to it. The foundation is one of the most important drivers on why I reclaim a recognition.
I encourage you to become customers of La Caixa, because we are one of the banks, because 30% of every profit is transferred to that foundation, as it's been done for many, many years. We want you, for once and for all, to have a director that comes born in Valencia, a Valencian director. We have people from all over everywhere, all around, Catalonia and the rest of Spain, but nobody from Valencia. Now we have the CaixaForum that will be inaugurated, officially opened this year. This building was transferred by the Valencian government and was paid by all Valencians, and you are taking profit and making use of this incredible building. I think it will be officially opened shortly. None of the politicians. Mr. Mestres, please, you've been speaki ng for six minutes.
All of you, all of the politicians should be sitting on the last row. Please, we beg you. We beg you to stop. The workers, people that lost everything. I need to say goodbye, farewell. You are out of time. You have consumed all your time. Long live La Caixa. Long live Valencia. Long live Catalonia.
Mr. Jose Antonio del Barrio Colmenarejo has the floor now.
Good afternoon, I'm Jose Antonio del Barrio Colmenarejo, and I want my full statement to be reflected on the minutes of this AGM. Dear President, ladies and gentlemen, dear members of the board, and good afternoon to all the staff making up the CaixaBank family. I must congratulate you today for the excellent results obtained in 2021. A profit of EUR 5.26 billion.
I encourage you all to follow the same track and continue working as such in the coming years. Dear José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, as you very well know, Bankia's shareholders lost between 50%-60% of our savings due to the low price of the stock value in the stock market. We very much wish that CaixaBank, on the long run, will be able to give us back part of the money we lost with an increase of the share value in the market. Mr. José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, you deceived us all the shareholders of Bankia, because you didn't fulfill your promise, your pledge, with an extraordinary benefit of EUR 52 million before the merger, before Bankia was absorbed or purchased, acquired by CaixaBank.
I ask you, were you paid with this non-executive chairman position during the mandate, which is the term, for the non-distribution of the extraordinary dividend? Are you aware that the fact of not distributing extraordinary dividend promised by the board of Bankia led to a great prejudice, great deal of harm to Bankia's shareholders? We will never, ever receive that money, get that money. That might seem to you something of the past, you know, past history, water under the bridge, but we don't have the benefit you are receiving in fixed and variable retribution. To me, every euro that gets at home, that arrives at my household, is more than welcome. We really need it. Last matter, please.
I would like to state that since the COVID-19 pandemic started from the outbreak, we protected all the members of CaixaBank, as it should be, according to the regulations in force. I request CaixaBank, in this year, to protect the shareholders, to change the focus of your protection so that the share gets revalued, because ultimately, they are the real support and foundations of this entity, of this company. That's all on my part. Thank you.
Ruth Bañes Banderas now will take the floor.
Good morning. I would like my words to be put in the minutes. I am a worker at CaixaBank, and not because of you, we have had enormous profits. The team, the workers, not you, have had to work for our own jobs due to the retrenchments you have put into place, the most savage retrenchments that you have done in history, Mr. Goirigolzarri, Mr. Gortázar. There were two historic strikes in the sector and at CaixaBank. You had the whole, all of the workers demotivated, you know, very sad. You also will go down in history as having incremented your salaries and benefits.
If you say that if your remuneration is in accord with those of a sector, well, I think, you know, all of this is just all about excesses, a whole series of excesses. I think that's your maximum aspiration to, we believe as workers that you should listen to us. You could do your job better. Look at your team. Why are we demonstrating outside? Why are we shouting outside of this building? Because we just cannot go on. We cannot work like this. We want to work under reasonable conditions. What needs to happen before you react? What, you know, what extreme do we need to reach? Please listen to us. Things are not going well. We are not well. We need resources, planning, and organization. We have obtained EUR 2,300 million.
It could be more if you had trust. Your leadership style is antiquated. You are living beyond the reality. Society has advanced, and the way you manage people has advanced. You know, you need to trust, please, more. Trust more your staff, your workers, giving autonomy, because the motivation has to be real. You need to lead people, not suffocate them. You please listen to what we put forward to you. We need more resources. Look at the territorial realities. It's all about numbers, you know, what the consequences of the merger about the branches. You need to recognize that all of the staff should have a lineal kind of payment system. All these videos you put forward are made. Please do facts. Do something, not just talk about things.
Please trust your employees because year in, year out, we've been at the level of, you know, expected of us in spite of the circumstances. Against points two, three , 9, 10, 12, and 14, we will vote against those points. Thank you very much.
Ms. Begoña Peiró will now take the floor.
Hello, Mr. President, board of directors, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board, and ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I'm Begoña Peiró. I am of the employee ASSEGEM trade union, employee trade union of CaixaBank. I would like my words to be put down on the minutes of the meeting. Today, I'm gonna talk about the forgotten people, those behind the results sheet, the balance sheet of the year.
I think there's a part of the staff which have been largely forgotten by you. Have you actually stopped and thought about them? Have you thought about, you know, who, what people makes your company function? It's your team here. It's your team that allows you to present those magnificent supposed results. Please understand for once and for all that without us, you know, you're not gonna have a benefit. Isn't that rather obvious? For some time now, those that have been working for you, we seem to be a kind of disturbance. We are a problem. You know, we're just like a, we're troublemakers or something. I mean, that's the way we feel that we're treated. We've had two retrenchment programs in the last four years.
Always with the same premise that we are supposed to make wage sacrifices, well, workplace sacrifices, family sacrifices. Please, members of the board, you know, if it was up to you, these retrenchments would have ended up as mass dismissals. You tried to trick us at the 2019 retrenchment known as ERE. It was, you know, that it was not possible for these retrenchments to be voluntary. Well, we tried very hard, and then we had it our way. With the ensuing negotiations, we managed to get the results. In spite of a world pandemic, we were really, you know, doing our job well and very well in spite of the circumstances.
We offered professionalism, integrity, strength, and bravery in those hard years. We are nonetheless now suffering the disastrous management imposed on us by you, and therefore we're losing trust, and we are not feeling as comfortable. You know, we're always feeling we are like a sword of Damocles hanging above us. With the arrival of the new CaixaBank, some of our hopes and aspiration simply disappeared. The human part of us, please recover the human side of things, because otherwise the consequences of trying to save costs by getting rid of staff, by giving others remaining staff excessive workloads, doesn't make sense even on a commercial argument. We please take notice of the increasing social pressure. Please stop these threats and, you know, mobbing and pressuring.
Members of the administration organ, is this the kind of setup that you want? Today, from our trade union, we want to go back to some of the old values that, you know, saw our origin, that were part of origin. Confidence, companionship, respect. These were values that helped you earn the respect of clients, your clients. This was the initial soul of the entity. Please, again, I stress, trust in those values because the implication of this stuff is undeniable. We are going through a lot of unhappiness. Please, ladies and gentlemen of the management, you need to learn not only to take care of, but to respect your staff, because otherwise it may one day be too late. Don't forget that without that devoted, loyal staff, you won't be able to do anything. Thank you very much.
Mr. David García Morillo will now take the floor.
Mr. President, members of the board, shareholders, I'm David García Morillo. I represent the UGT trade union employees who have vested their vote in me, and I want my words to be put into the minutes. I would like to express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine. The UGT, we are happy to see those extraordinary results, thanks to the enormous effort that we have made by the whole staff put together in one year marked by incredible circumstances, the pandemic which continues, the merger, and also the establishment of the largest retrenchment or ERE ever taken place. Nonetheless, the bank has made an enormous profit because I think the accelerated merging process, and the way it was merged and planned, has shown the insufficient number of staff that you have available.
Also, it means that a reduced number of staff have to deal with a much bigger volume of business. If this could have been planned beforehand, planned better, things would have been better for everybody concerned. You are expecting that with less staff, you're gonna have better results. That is, that has led to a work overload, enormous pressure on staff, and that the staff are not gonna go on. We are like that. You are only living for profitability. Is it necessary for both clients and members of staff to suffer so that you enhance your profitability? Please reconsider that. People have to be above everything. The sense of belonging that we had at CaixaBank, that has gone down. This happened with the retrenchment last year. You know, you...
The sense of belonging to CaixaBank has been tampered with. There were two strikes, as you know. Two strikes took place, because you wanted to forcibly apply certain harsh draconian measures. Please don't. There's no need to apply traumatic measures. We were able to, you know, sideline that retrenchment that you wanted to do originally, and we have always worked well in this house, and we've given good fruits, good profitability. Based on those arguments, that wound we're suffering has to be healed. The professionals at CaixaBank has to return, has to go back thinking, yes, that the management is looking after them because we as staff has worked so hard to be a quality financing entity. The financing services have become so important for so many people.
We have the obligation to, you know, deal with people who need our services, our advice, our assessments, and we need to avoid, make sure that people are not excluded from services. Given our position of leadership in the banking sector, if we cannot give the service that society demands of us, then we're going to see how the public sector is gonna have to look for public solutions. The adoption, you need to adopt measures, cannot only be borne on the shoulders of the employees exclusively. It has to be done with the whole internal structure of the bank, because I stress again, we are undergoing enormous pressure. The measures, the resources allocated to us are insufficient for us to do our work effectively.
You urgently need to apply in the short and immediate term measures to enhance the workplace situation of employees in order for them to give a better service. Now, in terms of the proposed salary increase, we reiterate that it reflect the effort that's been made by members of staff and, you know. Because of the efforts, you've received those excellent results. UGT Trade Union as well as CaixaBank and the Obra Social La Caixa, that's the social arm. We subscribe to the 2030 sustainability agenda of the UN. We feel what we have seen is an augmentation of the enormous wage differences which are patent among. We are going to vote therefore against points three, 10, 12, and 14. Thank you very much.
Ángel Bartolomé Moreno will now take the floor.
Hello. I want my words to be reflected in the minutes. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board of directors and shareholders, good morning. I'm Mr. Bartolomé, and I represent ACCAM, the associations ACC, ACEEC, and also many employees who have placed their trust in us. In the last AGM, we wanted the forced resignations to be canceled, and we wanted a new deal for these people. The new sizing or resizing of the bank that you always talk about, this whole thing of meritocracy. You talk so often about meritocracy, but we feel that a lot of the burden was being placed on the new employees coming into CaixaBank.
In such difficult years that we've seen, that they've had to change their life project, and given the extraordinary efforts in their work that they were making, we feel their situation has not been justly addressed. Now there is a feeling of general deception, disappointment among employees. You know, you that often talked about, you know, meritocracy and working hard to gain. You're still in time to make that happen, you know. The professionals that have come into CaixaBank feel that their trajectory, their career trajectories have been put off rails. We were promised certain things when joining, you know. These people that have joined have training and abilities, but nonetheless, there are situations they have to work with day in, day out, which are not acceptable.
Those who are in charge of an office or work at an office, sometimes they don't even know what destination, you know, they have to go to. Only hours before, you know, they get an email or something. You know, this still happens. They don't even know where to go the next day or in the following hours. I think, pardon my expression, but we are talking about. I will use the word humiliation. It is humiliating. The leadership model which you propose, which you put forward, is making the situation worse. Your will to be the number one always, it makes your leadership come across as, you know, not enabling people to, you know, get their work done, you know, to progress, to work fruitfully.
People can't work, you know, under these circumstances, under the pressures in those places of work or in their workplaces. This is so discouraging for these people. Modern human resource policies don't look at people simply as labor, as a number of hands. As Taylor put it in his study, you cannot deal with people in that way. It's not just about units of labor. It's also a question of putting in applying resources so that the work to be done is done better. As from ACEEC organization and ACC, we demand these changes to take place.
The merger and integration that we saw was very complicated, and we think that there should have been a correction coefficient in the salaries and the money that people take home. There were dramatic situations at workplaces. New members of staff did not have the right training, you know, at a certain day and at a certain place. That created a sense of impotence both among workers and clients when daily business that had to be done could not be conducted. This part of the staff have felt, especially these newer members of staff have felt how their efforts were not duly rewarded. You know, the price of diapers are the same for all employees.
For example, those people who run offices who maybe represent the fact that their representation costs are not fully met. I think that, you know, I would not understand either if you only got that 5% that we only could get. Mr. Bartolomé, we are running out of time. Could you, your exposition can be put forward in writing. I am finishing off. We are convinced that only an exhaustive policy that reduce the pressure that staff are facing can lead to. Yeah. We need a better adjustment of, you know, remuneration for the work done. I think other people were able to talk longer than me. What measures are you going to put into force at workplaces? How are you gonna act to modify your management leadership model?
Are you going to do a proper adequation, readjustment or adequacy, think over? Mr. President, it's your obligation to make sure, to ensure that the situation changes, and this is exactly what ACEA and ACAC are offering to you. We will collaborate with you if you wish to make these changes. You know th e way we work. Thank you very much.
There are still many interventions. Would you please keep to the time allotted, and we'll go on. María Concepción Rivas Amoedo will now take the floor.
Good morning. I would like my words to be put down in the minutes. Mr. President, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I'm María Concepción Rivas Amoedo. I am from the SATE trade union or syndicate. We cannot dispute the excellent results you have obtained last year.
We can only but congratulate you on that. But you have to remember, for those people working in the house, in this company, those results would not have been. We have gone through a feeling of abandonment, disappointment, gloom and doom, at the offices we work at. You know, we were feeling that we weren't getting anywhere. There was a sense of loss of direction, that going to work was a kind of prison sentence. 20% of those in the last retrenchment were young people who felt they just couldn't go on. They decided to move on to other jobs. You know, it's the will and the necessity to feel happy, to want to be happy, to attain happiness.
They saw those people who were affected in the retrenchment saw that banking was a high-risk business. All these constant changes of officers being shoved from one place to another. That led to enormous levels of depression, anxiety, family instability, and also problems with other social relationships. You know exactly full well what we're talking about. They are problems of all the workers of CaixaBank. But with the absorbed people, it seems that it's more of the same business. It's business as usual. They were relegated to whatever position without any explanation. They were asked to sign a document, you know. That's very discriminatory. Director bank managers who accomplished their missions, sub-directors, sub-managers who knew the business very well, you know, they had to sign all these promises, all these.
Also the employees, the way they were sidelined, relegated, treated as lesser people. So I think you had a big problem with your human resources, with your management philosophy. I think your view is too short and medium-term. It's based on the short term all the time. I think things could have been much better if you had functioned in another way. We would like to hopefully congratulate you next year, but also congratulate you for treating next year your to say that your workers have been treated better. We are proud of our social work commitment as Obra Social La Caixa. As the saying goes, charity begins at home. That includes looking after your employees, looking after their welfare, and that's what you're afraid of.
You think it's an anomaly because often it's a climate, it's a setting where people are working which is virtually unbearable. People do things, you know, people get so discouraged in the way resources are allotted or not even allotted, and it makes them think, Oh, it's because we're gonna be closed soon. We're gonna take us somewhere or throw us out somehow. CaixaBank, please look, please find remedy for the grievances of your staff. Thank you very much. Have a good day and good luck.
Mr. Ignacio Casado Servel will take the floor now.
Hello everybody. I'm Ignacio Casado. I present UGT at CaixaBank.
I would like to deal with some of the minor details that everyone's been talking about, but nothing that seems to be voted here will be a reflection of the last financial year exercise. The people that you know, you talk about voluntary people who left. You talk supposed voluntary. The historic strikes, two of them that we went to while there were such long queues of old people at the banks. I think going back on trying to be more mundane, I think the whole situation was shocking. You need two things in this company: employees and clients. Without that, if you, if one of those is missing, then any company will disappear. UGT said this. You know, you want.
You know, you expect grandparents to pay the bank with Bizum, you know, which is the phone application. I think that is indecent. You know, I think that you all went red face when such things were imposed on older people and such comments were made. Without those clients and also our older people, you would be nothing today. The same thing is happening with our colleagues, the colleagues that we work with. It's been a very sad year, you know. You know, the requests to be part of the retrenchment program just went overboard. There were so many requests. It meant that previous talent evaporated, you know, wasn't made use of. Talent was sidelined. They wanna...
There are still people who thought they were going out and maybe don't know quite the day they will be out, and probably it'll be sooner than later. This sector knows how to reconvert only by getting rid of job numbers. It will mean nobody will want to work here anymore. Are you gonna sell the televisions, mobile phones, the benefits? What about all those TV sets and phones that you were selling? Who's gonna be doing the selling part? Because that does concern UGT. You know, this will reverberate on the company. Looking back on history, the whole way you've done intermediation. We shouldn't have to be a bazaar, where you would have coffee by telephone or a TV set, you know. You know.
Only, you know, it's like playing on the fears and anxieties of people prone to anxiety and depression. We are having to put up with a lot of pressure in our offices. Sooner or later, what I'm saying is, you're gonna have to make a decision about how you're gonna sell any product if that you decide to sell. You know, is the biggest banking institution of the country gonna be converted into some kind of AliExpress? You know, I feel you need to be reminded that there should be a transforming process. You know, I think the image of CaixaBank is being badly affected. You are pulling the image down. Please don't look down upon our clients. Don't look down upon our workers. Because you are biting off the hand who's actually feeding you.
Mr. Antonio Lluís Llompart Forteza has the floor now.
Good morning, dear shareholders, members of the board of directors. I would like my statement, my intervention, to be included in the minutes. I speak as General Secretary of the Independent Union at the Balearic Islands. We are celebrating our 40 years of existence in the islands. I am speaking on behalf of those that delegated their vote on me. I would like to commend our colleagues at CaixaBank, the best staff in this banking sector, the best team. With their everyday effort, with their commitment and responsibility, they make possible that our entity, our bank, lies at where it lies. Thanks to that, you can present those extraordinary results.
Unfortunately, in our everyday work, it's been so for many years, we are subjected to pressures, lack of respect, a lack of education, insults, et cetera. Lack of empathy of intermediate managers that leads to unpleasant working environments. Sadly, the staff was at best the front line during the pandemic, and they were put at health risk. They faced a health risk, and this led to a situation of chaos and uncertainty. Until recently, this was one of the most coveted companies for youngsters. Currently, it doesn't even appear in the published ratings, just the contrary, with a big difference to other banks.
Regarding remuneration of employees, the last collective agreement led to the fact that we are losing more than 20% in terms of purchasing power. Our salaries went down because we made the mistake of disengaging our salaries from IPC, the Consumer Price Index. We want to implement an extraordinary increase in remunerations. In fact, the government asked for income pact. If it is ethical and it's fair that this is implemented, especially those that make possible these excellent results that were presented this morning by the members of the board, we want to congratulate CaixaBank Board for getting the AENOR's rating for being good for governance principles. The seventh one is the compliance with regulations, but this is not always the case in all organizations.
At CaixaBank, I got informed of the bad practices implemented by intermediate managers, and we notified those bad practices. They are vox populi. They are known by everybody. Is this the image and reputation we deserve? I mean, all the members, all of us making part of CaixaBank, so that we have less trust because you have a short-term vision. For us, this is really harming because we are not solving the needs of our customers. The customers are solving our problems, and this shouldn't be so. During the temporary dismissal negotiations, we were notified that customers were better, more digital, and those branches, those offices weren't necessary, and you decided to close them. But you were wrong. New initiatives have been presented to support our seniors as they deserve.
We need to go back to our origins and think more about our customers, consider them better. We would like to thank our CEO for taking seriously the request we made in the last AGM about mortgages. They became a challenge, and unfortunately, our competitors took advantage of that, and we lost business, so we need to be really proactive. In that same, the ERE, the temporary dismissal scheme, we accepted the voluntariness aspect. You understood that it was. In the end, you understood, and you agreed that it was absolutely necessary, I mean, that the fact that the dismissals had to be voluntary. We never came to that point in 17 years of history. For the coming negotiations, a piece of advice, please do trust the great professionals working at your departments of human resources. You don't need to hire external counselors and advisors.
We need a firm commitment with customers, with the staff. That is why we ask you to change your attitude so that we recover our excitement and that pride of being part of CaixaBank. At Moragas, our founder, they stated the work at our head and the people at our heart. We are a soulless bank and entity. You are the highest authority. You have a mission and the obligation of recovering that soul that we've lost at CaixaBank. That's it. That is of the utmost importance for all of us. Thank you.
Mr. Gerard Xifra Cutillas has the floor now.
Senyor President. Mr. President, Mr. CEO, members of the board of directors, dear shareholders. I speak on my own behalf, and I represent rights of the proxies. I'm representing IFEC. Before anything, I'm going to thank Mr. Gonzalo Gortázar that part of his intervention was pronounced in Catalan. He spoke in Catalan, but this is part of his responsibility with regard to the Catalan language. I encourage the chairman, maybe he does next year, to speak in Catalan in part of his statement. We would be really thankful. In Catalonia, I always thought that the most important asset at CaixaBank is the human asset, the human capital, our staff. They made a great effort, but they've suffered a lot as a result of the mergers.
Inherent to that growth in recent years, the balance of the treatment given to our employees by the manager is really daunting. We are aware of the transformations process we are undergoing as a bank. We are a company, so the main aim is to achieve the highest possible. This doesn't justify at all that you are putting psychological and commercial pressure on the workers beyond any acceptable degree, especially those that are working in Catalonia. As a result of this pressure you are putting over us, the number of sick leaves for anxiety has increased significantly in recent years. All of these people that had to leave their jobs will stay so for a long time. Those sick leaves have an impact on a higher working load on the rest of the colleagues.
Affect negatively the service provided to our customers. The pressure on selling, on getting commissions, the fact that the network of branches has been reduced and the cost-cutting schemes lead to an abandonment of people that are really talented but decide to leave and go to find a better prospect in other companies and sectors. We are fully convinced that we are approaching a turning point. This will be counterproductive for our interest, for the health of our workers, and for CaixaBank as a whole. That is why we demand that the pressure goes back to standard levels that worked perfectly well in the field of results without those sick leaves. I would like to conclude with a single question, and I would thank you for replying.
What is the absenteeism and percentage necessary so that you, well, start to act, so that we, the employees, go back to dignified conditions that do not lead to harm, to sick leaves, to absenteeism, and to leaving our jobs for health problems and issues. Thanks to the workers and those of you that chose CaixaBank as your bank of trust. That's all. Thank you all.
Don Jordi Miguel Terrasa Sales has the floor.
Good afternoon. Before I start my intervention, I would like to thank the board, to CaixaBank, to the managers and the employees for the commitment and solidarity with the humanitarian crisis, the Ukrainian conflict. Thanks for all your support. I'll start my statement, my intervention, and I want it literally to be reflected on the minutes.
Mr. President, Mr. CEO, dear members of the board, dear shareholders, good afternoon. I'm Jordi Terrades, president of ASEBANKIA, the association that gathers all professionals at Bankia and now professionals at CaixaBank. I speak on their behalf, and I represent them, and also as a vice president of the AFEC Federation on behalf of those professionals that deposited their trust on us. I'll give you some data and figures, considerations about the concerns of some of our employees, members of the staff. President of the AFEC and Secretary General of AFEC will elaborate on that. We would like to publicly congratulate all the female and male workers at CaixaBank because they are the ones who deserve the merit of the enormous benefits accumulated by the entity, more than EUR 5 billion, four times as much as previous benefits last year.
Those benefits are the result of the merger with Bankia that provided EUR 4.3 billion in goodwill, EUR 2.3 billion in excess capital, EUR 10 billion in fiscal credits, from which EUR 7 billion can be monetized. This way, we helped or paid one of the highest temporary layoff schemes in history, which was more profitable compared to the last one executed in 2019. However, all these overwhelming positive figures were not enough to satisfactorily integrate the Bankia's staff. They couldn't enjoy equal conditions when joining one of the best banks in Spain. Those expectations were founded on great sacrifices made along the years, professionalism, capacity, professional competencies proven in the worst examples, in the worst moments we underwent as a in the banking sector.
We will have to wait until 2026 to achieve an acceptable minimum after the figures we just expressed. We will have to wait four years to be treated as equals. It's in your hands to put a remedy to provide illusion and excitement to the Bankia employees. Mr. Gortázar, our CEO, said two months ago that this year, in this year, you will materialize the synergies of costs, and we will present the strategic lines of the bank for the coming years. The start, the beginning was really bad. We provoked the despair of thousands of customers when some those branches were closed, and offices. They created protest platforms. Our situation is not the same as other banks that were absorbed previously. We cannot keep on doing business as usual.
I mean, it is absolutely necessary to tackle a realistic plan so that we can embrace the whole staff, all the members of Bankia, because they are well trained. They are experienced employees that cannot reach their full potential if they are unaware, unfamiliar with the IT system. This created an unnecessary problem, and the customers have changed their perception. They do not trust any longer. We cannot afford to lose those consumer-customers. This is, this wasn't in our spirit. This is one of the pillars on which we are based. The last lack of acceptability of alliance, lack of merger of employees, the fact that proximity services were canceled, among others, led to an exponential growth of professional stress, leading to sick leave, anxiety, depression on our employees.
We need to review the leadership model by engaging people's managers so that we can adapt to the new situation and conditions, since several intermediate managers should be part of this modernization processes. Some of them need to be laid off. I mean, we need to do without them because they are forcing people, they are putting fear. History proves and shows that this is not the way to follow. The working environment is really bad. The first victims are the health and welfare of our staff, and then will come the customers, and finally, the benefits. Can you please move on to your questions? We are drifting away from our expectations and objectives. We will have the worst consequences in the near future.
We demand, we ask you that all the experience and the skills you accumulate are put at the service of a new model of labor relationships that allow us to dream of an entity that is capable of motivating us. Our future is in your hands. We need to find a balance among the best assets of our company, the workers and the shareholders. All of them are people. ACB and LAFE will be close to you so that we are happy, we feel satisfied again. Please do not disappoint us again. Thanks.
Mr. Joan Reinés Salomà has the floor.
Good morning. Good afternoon, rather. I want my statement to be shown literally in the minutes. Mr. President, members of the board, dear shareholders, dear colleagues, I'm Joan Reinés.
I speak on behalf of the trade union at the Balearic Islands belonging to Bankia. According to the last reports published, the most repeated comment was congratulations because you really explained what is going on in La Caixa. What is going on, what's happening there? Well, it seems that it has been a long chain of EREs, of temporary dismissal schemes that has reached its limit. Our staff is at the limit of their physical and psychological strength. They have a lot of work to do, more and more work, and not enough hands. I would like to insist on a piece of information that was mentioned this morning, digitization process. We have achieved 70%. Maybe the board members didn't reflect on this.
It's hard to believe that three out of every four customers of our end team did it. Most of them are getting old, so I'm not sure at all that they have accomplished this digital literacy and learning process. I'm sure they are not able to do so. The duty of the members of the board is to make decisions that guide the future and the way to follow by us, and this has an impact on many of our customers and our workers. Taking as granted a digitization process that is not real implies a higher amount of work by us, by the employees working on assumption that is not well, doesn't respond to reality. Please delve deeper and please consider those data and study them in detail because this is not real.
Our employees have to work a lot on each of the customers. The customer has to fill in a form and sign it, and that means that this person is digital already, and this is ridiculous. Some of our workers have portfolios, thousands of customers. Thousands, I mean. Do you think that this is enough? In many cases, they have many, many tasks to carry out, many challenges to face. Apart from that, when they need to sell a specific project in a very limited timeframe due to consumerism, and that's a system that's a burnt land principle. If the employee doesn't work as expected, he is called an incompetent. There is a lack of sensitivity on the part of the managers, so they are ridiculing some of the bosses, so to say.
They are following a policy of a hierarchical system, and those that are in power are increasing the number of tasks that the lower positions need to cope. That tyranny by supervisors is non-stoppable. We need more support, more help. The working environment is really bad, and the occupational risks are increasing. To conclude and on top of that, we have a war. We're facing a war, and we are all part of a network. These conditions are unacceptable. Please do as it's needed so that workers stop receiving claims and complaints by customers. There are three factors that have an impact on us. First of all, lack of human touch. Second, our branches, our offices have no macro vision. Where are we heading to?
Is there anybody, any real leader? We need to know about the direction. We cannot be kept in the dark any longer. Thirdly, we need social peace. Without social peace, there's nowhere we can reach nowhere, no way to work. Things cannot be imposed by force, but by collaboration. We need to redirect our direction based on social peace. We need to recover that sense of belonging, human treatment for us, for workers, and for customers. That's all on my part. Thank you.
Mr. Alberto Martín Luis Vílchez will now take the floor. Your intervention seem to be rather long. Could you just shorten it, please?
Good morning, Mr. President, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, and shareholders. I would like my words to be put down on the minute. I am Secretary General of CSIF, the financial department affiliated to other such bodies, and I represent the workers at the entity. Mr. President, I'll start talking about two of the points what affect the workforce. As president of AER has pointed out before, I will talk about the palpable and the tangible, and how that affects the workforce. One-third of the workforce came from Bankia. You know that.
In 2026, that particular group will actually be receiving remuneration that will actually be less than that in proportion to their other colleagues from the other side, and that is, in my view, discriminatory. Because of this, with this merger, CSIF asked for homologation to make these salary levels, et cetera, equal. This has not been happening. Mr. President, can we remind you once again that this discrimination is continuing, we have worked the same way under the same conditions and the same objectives. To improve the productivity of the entity, we've really rolled up our sleeves. We cannot continue to discriminate against one part of the staff, Mr. President. Please allow other suggestions to be offered.
For example, teleworking from home, which is now so widespread, that would enable a real integration of the whole staff. It would also enable a reduction of general costs and also save on space. Also, I'm referring to Sustainable Development Goals. That should be also considered in your leadership as well as the way they are trained. We feel little, you know, has been put into practice, Mr. President. I beseech you have to make changes. Please allow a greater proportion of people to do teleworking, Mr. President.
I believe, you know, if you look at the bank branch as a trench of the entity, you know, the main front, the battle front, you know, I think it should be able to do things better because in fact, you will be creating a win-win situation. I think we could. We are asking for your will to come to an agreement that would. My word, you would call it. It also means the abolition of discrimination between different sectors of the staff, make it a real homologation of different staff, including those that came from Bankia. Also that there should be a transfer model put into place more in line with reality.
In that way, our colleagues, both men and women, will be able to do their job under better conditions in a happier way, in a more human way, and will be, and therefore, it means taking care of your staff. We cannot finalize this point without referring to the macroeconomic context and how that's affecting society. That's why our trade union movement is offering to you opening up a dialogue table in order to deal with these issues, and we do this on behalf of the employees. Now we'll talk about the intangible, the non-tangible. It means quantifying health, welfare of the staff.
I think we need to sit down and talk about sustainability. We'll start with the social sector and, you know, all of these services which you manufacture, which you offer. You seem to be saying that common objectives need to be obtained, but this can only be done through appropriate remuneration, appropriate treatment of employees, and therefore, you will be able to get better investment in these companies. Mr. President, I beseech that you consider a win-win situation. Things will go better, and you will. You know, we should have a manager model which is befitting for the most important banking group in Spain, not based on authority, but on constructive leadership. You also need to be reminded, listen, talk, and do, please. Thank you very much.
Mr. Óscar Vallena Candel will now take the floor.
I would like my words to be put down in the minutes. I'm Óscar Vallena Candel. I am president of STC, the trade union of CaixaBank workers. I feel I see life as a kind of boomerang. Things, it's thrown, but then it comes back to you. You seem to ask for common sense to your employees. Calm. The day-to-day pressure is so high. The anxiety is such that do you think under these, sir, this situation, they can continue to perform adequately? I feel that you needed to ask yourself, is this the best business strategy you want to pursue? Do you know, nobody should be left behind.
I think there are many things which you have not put on your agenda to talk with the workers, not just salary, origin and transfers, destinations, wage comparisons. All this is gathered up in article 28. This is the whole point is that, you know, a work with the same value should be paid equally in terms of value. This affects pension plans, which can make things vary by up to 300%. Do you publish a salary distribution so that we can see if there are significant differences? For example, it's like a person eating two chickens and one person has no chicken at all, but the average is actually one chicken per person.
I think some of the statistics that are put forward to us do not reflect reality. Well, aren't you a little bit ashamed of yourselves? I think you need to have a good, long, hard look at that. Now, there is enormous wage level, salary level differences which need to be addressed. Motivation is something that's being affected. Please explain that to the people who signed the LEALI document. They were forced to sign that. I think you need to have more personalized attention, and you don't need to look over your shoulder. I think it's you talk, you know, in Anglo-Saxon terms, you know, my word, stock, this and that. They are still loyal clients. You must not forget about them. They are loyal clients. If they wanna make use of digitalization, well, that's fine.
I think we need to, you need to, for example, in the afternoons employ more staff. The future is digital, you say. You know, you talk about meritocracy. If the future is digital, when is the work really gonna be digital? I think in life, as in chess, both the king, a piece that's the king and also the small soldier end up in the same box. Let's please reduce the commercial pressure. The anxiety that's being instilled in workers is excessive. We want the best of CaixaBank, too.
Mr. Carlos Alberto Guerrero Naranjo will now take the floor.
Hello, everybody. I want my words to be put into the minutes. Hello there. I'm Carlos Guerrero. I'm a shareholder, an employee, and representative.
A month ago, I went to a session of my son's school, and I had to talk about what my job involved. I had to answer a question to the school children. I had to talk about the company and its social function. The questions that were asked to me about how the bank. Well, the first question was. We capture the savings of clients, and we can, people can borrow money and businesses can grow. Also the bank commercializes other services such as insurance by reciprocity, other. We do other services. That was what I was able to tell those children. That class at a school would have had their mouths left open. Instead of just talking about the theory, I would have talked about what happens, you know.
If I had explained a true day of a CaixaBank employee, where there is no social function. You know, things about aspirations, ambitions, pushing, pressure, or the use of whiteboards. Also even second-hand goods purchases and sales and stuff that we have to do. Those who don't give a profit to the bank are get relegated to a you know, much lesser positions. The fact that what happens to the bank does not serve the client's interest. The attention to the client of today you know, to say all this in front of school children for them who might even be considered to be shareholders of tomorrow, I find that worrying.
I think that, you know, if an employee says a comment or makes a comment or complaint during the week, that person is gonna be facing problems during the week. There are memes about all of this, how employees are treated to those who speak out. Next time, I think the theory of our profession should be coherent with the practice. Therefore, I will be able to explain to children or the adults of the future that therefore we can work, help build an economic stronger society, but also more civilized and more human. Are we gonna be pursuing a policy of selling at all costs? Or are we gonna be going back to the vocation of serving society? Thank you very much.
Mr. Antoni Cano I Bernet will take the floor.
Mr. President, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I am Mr. Bernet. I'm the Secretary General of Trade Union of the Catalan Association of the Banking. One more time, from the Catalan perspective, we are looking at how the management has gone. I am seeing a way of working, a way of operating, the way the staff is being treated. We are seeing a kind of economic leadership, a kind of commitment which has been exported to the rest of Spanish territory. I'm speaking of the workers there at CaixaBank. You know, based on your decisions, you've seemed to have used people, the employees, as a cost to be reduced. That's the way you see them.
You know, the average salary at the entity has been maintained while the costs in that period I mentioned over those years have gone up by 50%. I believe your main asset should be your workers. I think that in. Do you really think that, you know, you're doing. Don't you think it's time for an income remuneration increase to be applied for the whole of your staff? I think with your management, you should be paying more attention to social protection and the advancement of society. I think that is a savage kind of capitalism which is taking its toll on society. Speaking of the human factor, you know, when are you going to start changing things?
You talk about the creation of value, but what about creating value for your staff? People are finding that they are working at a place which is supposed to be deeply rooted within society, but inherently it is not that at all. We have seen how clients have been abandoned. You have gone from certain territories and regions, parts of the country. Is this really explainable? Can you simply explain it away? I'm afraid if I had to grade you would fail. You will get a fail grade. You know, you were supposed to be the best place to work. It's not the best place to work. I think you have lost a sense of direction. I think you need to be reminded that changes need to happen. The staff does not remain.
You know, things should not be that way. That's not our raison d'être. You know, we want to do things based on more integrity. Yeah. In this Anglo-Saxon terminology, we call. You know, we are subject to brainwashing and as our clients. Once more, and just to round off. I think it's a shame that Barcelona is a city that this entity should never have left. I think you are very comfortable now sitting there at your offices in the Pintor Sorolla Street in Valencia. Maybe then your next step will be to move yourselves to your office in Madrid. I wonder how far you will go. Thank you.
We have no more. No, we have some telematic reports.
The first one will be read.
Hello, everybody. Mr. President, delegates. As I usually do in my interventions, since 2016, I've been participating at AGMs. I will have to do it telematically this year for various reasons. I was at Bankia and then it's called short but intense journey and having lived through the COVID-19, the staff cutbacks, so many other negative things. I think it's been a big challenge for everybody. Nonetheless, thanks to the efforts of all the workers, you know, the result this year is really good. It could not be better. Thirty-six million customers, better market share, and net profit has increased and 2021 had EUR 4,200 million.
This was it. It was envisaged that that was gonna be paid out as dividends. Well, in the previous intervention, there was comment made about the difficult moments we were going through, and we have the shadow of many things happening in the world. I believe often the worst things happen to the most innocent people that have really, you know, say. I want to thank our bank again for their concern about what is happening to the citizens of Ukraine. As always, I'd like to thank our main shareholder, which is the foundation,"l a Caixa" Foundation, because they were creating a safeguard, a safety net against poverty.
that also in fact they're looking after people with advanced forms of disease. I want to thank Mr. President, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri. Thanks for being a part of this great bank. All of my great support as a minority shareholder, and I applaud your efforts, and I will continue to applaud. I sign this Antonio Vallarino. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now answer the grievances and comments.
In the first two that intervened, Mr. Fernando Martín Urrutia and Mr. Fernando Herrero Sáez de Eguilaz, they were representing ADICAE. I think that both and the other had many ideas in common. They've structured their comments on four pillars. Collective demands, judicial demands, judicial questions, CaixaBank's claims. They were dealing with claims and how that was gonna go through the courts.
I think that's a new attitude that's being put forward, and I'm sure that we will find a pathway to channel those claims, and that we'll be able to reach agreements, mutually beneficial. The second thing he talked about was Mr. Fernando Herrero Saiz, and he made reference to our board director, what he had said, that he was not convinced by the figures, but the volume of commissions. When we talk about commissions, there are various kinds. One involve products. We are clear about commission, our commissions. The claim that we are applying the commissions as was commented, I differ from that. The third point was about sustainability and our...
In terms of sustainability, when we are looking at climate change and that challenge, I think, all shareholders of this bank should be proud that we are taking an active interest because we are emitting debt in terms of IFE. We are in all of the agencies, in all of the rankings. In terms of sustainability, we are actually quite well considered. I would say that participating in this. The first point was about the agility, while dealing with older people, and I think this was commented on by Mr. Ballesteros. And also the people representing the trade unions or syndicates. I'm gonna ask Mr. Gortázar to reflect on that and answer that a bit later, in his, campaign proposal.
Mr. Fernando Herrero and Fernando, and the things they were talking about, and the way the treatment of older people, that's gonna be dealt with, that will be dealt with by Mr. I will answer. I will leave that to a later stage of my answer. That was answering Mr. Herrero and Fernando. Mr. Fernando. Yes, thank you. These were two interventions. I want to answer those first two. I want to do a joint answer to those two interventions by two different people. Of course, I wanna make clear our position on human rights. We are signatories of world agreements, world treaties, concerning the role of investment banks, responsible banking. I want to make that absolutely clear. Our activity is not just purely banking.
On our public webpage, those commitments I was referring to are public. Those principles are there, and they include, I don't wanna make it too long, but, one of the aspects is that they shouldn't have relationship with arms companies or with countries or public sectors or countries undergoing arms embargoes. We don't do deals with intermediaries, and that we don't finance operations, well, in countries with human rights abuses. We apply that in our international banking operations, and we are aware of this as far as Ukraine is concerned. Our policy is public, and we will continue to operate that way. Thank you. To the fifth intervention, José Javier Ballesteros Gómez, and he was asking about attention to the senior citizens. I wanted to talk about how that relates to digitalization.
When we talk about those new digital technologies and new distribution channels in banking, it's possibly one of the most complex issues facing us today. There's no doubt about that. It's one of the most difficult things to manage because different clients have different needs. That's absolutely clear. Some people want to do it digitally, others physically, and the majority want to do it in a mix. Or different other channels. We all have to give them an excellent service to each and every one of them. This is also of particular relevance when it comes to senior citizens. Because when we talk of CaixaBank's response to them, we're not just talking about digitalization. We're talking about a concept which is far more complex, you know.
In the plans and measures that are being carried out in CaixaBank were not plans done just a few months ago. No, no. They were actually spelled out back in 2019. It was based on the vector of transactionality. We decided that the network of branch offices and offices. Our bank network is bigger put together than our two next competitors, and we have 13,000 automatic tellers. In terms of older people, what they're concerned about is withdrawing cash and also paying bills, you know, and also updating their cash movements records. At CaixaBank, we decided that this updating could be done. Bank passbooks could be updated at all teller banks.
Nine hundred new automatic tellers will be put into place. Furthermore, as happened with Bankia, obviously the Bankia customers were gonna have more problems adapting, that we have reinforced our offices with 1,400 extra staff to reinforce automatic processes at offices. We wanted to increase the personalization of services. I would like to insist here, as was said before, that at 2019 this was already thought about back in 2019. Not that we just did it, you know, recently. This was well thought about before. In our training, we were already starting to look at that a few years ago, in order to make a transition as good as well as possible.
In 2021, we had 700 updated, and then at the end of the year, we'll have up to 2,000. Also we introduced a personalized telephone contact system. As Mr. Urrutia said that it was important that we keep up the training, you know, training our clients to interact with us. We've had 1,600 sessions to form them. We've developed a unique service system, which we're already displaying and showing to people. It's been growing and will grow in the coming months. In our opinion, I think we've had a good approximation to a segment of the population. I'm sure there is still room to improve, and that will be our commitment. Mr. Ballesteros also looked at a call.
Well, he talked about a call that was never returned, he claims. I'm sorry, I was not aware. You know, I was thinking about how votes in somebody's name can be assigned. Well, I want to thank you. I would like to say three things, too, in my gratitude. Yes, you can delegate votes in me. Yes. Two, that he came here. And three, his presence. Yes, of course. Number three, that it was an intelligent intervention. I can assure you, in a very short period of time, I hope there was no misunderstanding on it. For Mr. Eduardo Mestres Mataró, he had an intervention, which was very lively as in recent years. I would like to say three things.
First of all, I want to thank you for your fidelity to this institution. You have great passion and fidelity for this entity. Secondly, I couldn't, you know, agree with you anymore. Our clients have to be our central issue. They legitimize our position, what we do, what we're all about. Therefore, we wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for them. Thirdly, I really, you know, I'm sad that you have that opinion of us, of me. Because what I will do is, with humility, I assure you I will reflect. Yeah, you're saying things have to be changed. I am open to change. Mr. Colmenarejo started by congratulating the board, the team here, and that I really appreciate. Then he made a few...
He drew, made some points. First of all, he said that at Bankia, there was a commitment to shareholders that EUR 2,000 million-EUR 2,500 million would be set aside, and we generated that money. It was impossible to accomplish that commitment because it was not finalized. What was possible was a merger, and that happened. When I say that, I'm thinking of the shareholders foremost. It's their money, the shareholders' money, that their shares, the ones that they had in Bankia, have had an overall net increase of 107%. That's not so bad. We are focused with the creation. We are all about the creation of added value for our shareholders.
I proudly say that our profitability, level of profitability is 464.65%. This has led to a 73% increase in value, 30% more than the average of the time. With this, we'll now move over to the representatives of the trade unions.
I understand there were two types of questions that were asked. The first group referred to the remuneration scheme of the board and the second package of referring to occupational or labor aspects. I'm sure that our CEO will complement and delve deeper on some of the issues I will make reference to. I'll start by speaking about remuneration scheme of the members of the board. Everything is fully regulated. These are proposals by the remuneration committee that is assisted by external counselors, and apart from that, they permanently relate those remunerations with the market level. Apart from that, I remind you that this retribution, that remuneration, has to be previously approved by the annual general meeting.
Having said that, when you spoke about comparisons of remunerations between 2020 and 2021, you made some mistakes, in my humble opinion, when making those comparisons, maybe because in 2020, our CEO he was generous enough to renounce to his variable remuneration, and in 2021, he decided to earn it, to collect it. Apart from that, the fact that in 2020, we had a non-executive presidency, whereas in 2021, we had an executive presidency. This entails a change in the way of calculating remunerations. In 2021, this board implemented no change in their remuneration. There was no increment at all in remuneration compared to 2020, in 2021. I want this to be clear. Speaking about 2022, basically, in terms of executive directors, two aspects were presented to your consideration, which will be voted later on.
Firstly, as in all the members of the staff with pluriannual remuneration, we combine the yearly and the multi-annual remuneration, both for the CEO and myself, considering that the global amount will never be modified. Apart from that, in the variable remuneration, before, we had the obligation to keep it for one year. Now, we are proposing to the board to keep them for three years. Apart from that, even though what the directors of CaixaBank receive much less compared to other banks of similar size, we are proposing this board to keep it stable, so no changes in the remuneration of non-executive directors and the two executive directors, both in their fixed and in their variable remunerations. That is what I wanted to say regarding this topic. Moving on to what you mentioned about labor issues, labor aspects.
As I announced before, our CEO will elaborate on that.
I would like to make some remarks on what has been said by the UGT trade union's representatives. As you all know, all of the people I've had, I've been lucky to work with. I have a fixed idea in the banking sector, and maybe in other sectors, but I only worked on the banking sector. The difference between excellent banks and those that are not excellent lies mainly on the teams, on the staff. I am absolutely convinced that this will continue to be so in a much more digitalized and technological world. I have no doubt that people, with their professionalism and their firm commitment, make the difference between excellent businesses and those that are lagging behind.
As I said in my presentation, in recent months were marked by the integration process after the merger. I insisted on that, and I will underscore it, the behavior by the members of the staff was absolutely excellent, extraordinary, because they managed to overcome a complex process with a really high degree of reliability. I have never had the occasion to see such a degree of excellence in the previous mergers I took part in the past. The same goes for those people that are in direct contact with the customers, because they were exemplary in closeness to the customers. This merger took place in complex situations as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I must say that, in the light of such a complicated environment, this was possible, thanks to the courage and the commitment, of all the members of the team at CaixaBank. I insist on thanking and expressing my gratitude to all of them. I want to thank you for offering yourselves to reach agreements on two aspects. Having said this, and before I give the floor to our CEO, to our chief executive, I offer two remarks on my part. We are aware, all of you, also the people that intervened before, we are in an extremely competitive sector. We have formidable competitors, other banks that are doing great, traditional and emerging businesses. Within this market, we need to behave as a high-performing organization, as we've done, as we always did.
This entails achieving highly ambitious goals, because this is the only way of keeping this project in a sustainable way and over time. Of course, we feel absolutely proud of that. We need to be respectful for people, of course, for every people, and this was the standard here, I mean, throughout our history. I would like to say something regarding our relationship and our links with our customers. Our whole strategy has the customer at its core. Without our users, our customers, we would have no job, no salary, no work. They justify, and they are the reason for everything we do. That is why we intend to keep long-term relationships with our customers, and we need to serve them with the highest excellence standards.
Therefore, the quality of our service has to be our first reference, our benchmark, but also the counseling is part of this high-quality service provided. What's more, our duty is to respond to the needs of our customers by offering the most appropriate product and services to them. This is the best sign of our quality, which means we are close to our customers, we analyze their needs, and we offer them the best alternatives and options. I conclude by sharing with you my conviction, the conviction of all the members of this board, and hopefully that will be the same and can be applicable to all the people that make up CaixaBank, especially related to our, the link with our customers, with the public. No goal, no objective can be achieved by violating our values and our principles.
This is the direction we need to follow. They are the direction we need to follow at all times. I give the floor to my colleague, to the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Gonzalo Gortázar.
I'll try to be brief, of course. First of all, I would like to thank the interventions of all the trade union representatives. They mentioned many things they don't like, of course, but there is a good point, an advantage. We agree in our firm commitment with the staff, and this commitment led us to achieve those results, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. We hold on to that we share that mission, that premise, which is absolutely fundamental. Undoubtedly, in recent years, the environment has changed, and it's been really complex, with interest rates that are negative.
This is contrary to traditional situations with a complicated economic environment and regulatory changes that well had a profound impact on our sector. Really difficult years we had to go through also for us. Of course, we went through that integration that entailed a big effort. We went through the pandemic that affected us all, as other members of the sector. Our Chairman insisted on the great development and the great achievements despite all those drawbacks. This is also in the end that was also a challenge for our customers, for our clients, for our users. That was our mission. Therefore, we cannot obviate, we cannot forget that we are living a complicated time, harsh times.
Our business model is strong, is solid, is sound, and it's based on listening to the customer, providing solutions, analyzing their needs, and propose solutions. That's at the core of what we do, that's our mission, and that's what makes sense to us. Apart from that, we have our incentives, our challenges, our ambitions, and we are achieving them systematically, especially in recent years, since 2021. Challenges are an instrument and tool, but really why, I mean, what is really important is listening to our customers. This is the model to follow, undoubtedly. As we said, we had to go through an integration, the highest in the history of Spain, of the Spanish financial sector, one of the greatest ones in the European continent.
As our chairman said before, we managed to integrate our systems within eight months. It was highly complex technologically and financially. It was really complex. We integrated separate processes, business models, risks, alliances we had established in important topics such as insurances, real estate agents, payments, and so on and so forth. Great effort, and especially convergence of people, the most important component. We have 6,500 people in absolute terms that left our group. Well, the good thing is they all did so voluntarily, and we are grouping our offices, our branches. Many employees were impacted, affected. Their position changed as a consequence of this integration process. There are 10 million customers where we moved their. They had to relocate because their offices disappeared or they were merged with others.
Of course, within 12 months, think about that, within 12 months we had to go through all of this. Of course, there's no way it could be easy and simple. We need to be realistic. Integration of such a size, of course, had to be complicated and required effort. The good thing is we haven't got to the end, that we will still have to work for more months, for some months. We did with velocity, with a moderate level of interference, of impact, and above all, we learned from our mistakes, from the errors, from the incidences that took place and tried to avoid them happening again. Thirdly, and finally, we did it with the highest level of commitment. We all. There are no different sides or different categories.
We are just a whole, a single team, a single vision, and we, well, share all those values, so there are not two or three or four sides. I feel this is my obligation. The management team is extraordinary. I have no doubt, the best in the banking sector, in the Spanish banking sector. I've seen the managers. Well, I've worked a lot with them, central and the services, territorial managers, business area managers. I mean, they work really hard. They are extraordinary professionals, and we owe them the success of this year. They are also part of the staff and have an additional responsibility. The excellence, future perspectives, well, I mean, are possible thanks to them.
Our managerial team works on, based on commitment and closeness, but also demanding ourselves, being honest, being hardworking and professional, always with the customer at the center. I can assure you that if we find that the manager doesn't share a value, his career or her career will be short in our group. As a conclusion, and replying to the remarks made, I would like to finally state that we fully agree with attributing the successes to our staff. I can only have words of recognition, of gratitude, wherever they come from, one, Bankia or CaixaBank. They worked extraordinarily. We are all part of the same group.
Secondly, our will to keep on working together so that CaixaBank gets better and better, both for our customers, for our shareholders, and logically, for our employees too, so that CaixaBank is a benchmark, a reference for all of us. For the society as a whole. Finally, on a personal note, we will make the commitment to keep on working with the union representatives. We share the same objectives. We've done so in the past, and we will continue to do so in the present and future. Looking for constructive solutions, having a positive mindset so as to solve problems, this is the tarannà in Catalan, that is our spirit. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gortázar. The final question, that is the intervention, remote statement by Mr. Antonio del Valle. So I will reply to his intervention.
I would like to honestly and sincerely thank him for his words on behalf of the whole CaixaBank team, the members of the board, and the employees. We all agree that we are living harsh times, fraught with uncertainty. We need, despite everything, to be optimistic. We are optimistic because we are strong financially, we have an excellent distribution model, and we have the best professionals in our team. That is why I feel so positive and optimistic. I fully agree, and I am in line with what you said in your, in your thanks, in your gratitude to all the members of CaixaBank's team. They are all to thank, and they all deserve our recognition. They are showing a firm commitment with the people, and the link that makes us part of a one thing.
We are deeply proud of this. With this, we conclude this round of replies, and now we move on to the analysis and approval of the different agreements we reached. We give the floor to our secretary.
As the information and documentation was provided to the shareholders previously, according to the regulations, we want to read the most extensive proposals, although we will briefly summarize, and we will provide additional information. The voting procedure will consist of approving the different proposals by the chairman when there is a majority, without prejudice of the publication of these data within the next five days. Those people that are attending these AGM remotely, please, you still have the opportunity to vote. Vote in favor will...
Those that don't vote against or abstain will be considered as positive or vote in favor. Regarding the first point of the agenda, approval of the individual and consolidated financial statements and the respective management reports duly audited for the year ended on the 31st of December 2021. Based on the data in the hands of the board, we approved it with a majority. Secondly, approval of the consolidated non-financial information statement for the year ended on 31st of December 2021, contained in the report, consolidated management report that was verified according to the regulations in force. Based on the data we have at the official table, we approve it by majority. Thirdly, approval of the board of directors management during the year ended on 31st of December 2021.
Based on the data we have at the official table and the board, we approve it by the majority. Fourthly, approval of the proposed allocation of profit for the year ended, net profit of EUR 4 billion, and we devote to dividends EUR 1.1 billion and voluntary reserves EUR 3 billion, approximately. The legal reserve achieves 20% of the equity. The final amount devoted to dividends equals 50% of the consolidated net profit, adjusted by the results and the, of the merger with Bankia. This is an estimated amount. The total amount will be, well, adapted. We approved it by majority. Fifth point, we have proposed to re-elect the company's accounts director and its consolidated group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to the recommendation of the audit and control committee.
6.01, we propose to re-elect Tomás Muniesa Arantegui as a member of the board at the proposal of the "la Caixa" Foundation for the period with a term of four years after the favorable report received by the appointment committee. We approve it by majority. Section 6.2, we propose to re-elect Mr. Eduardo Javier Sanchiz Irazu as a member of the board, independent director for four years at the proposal of the appointment and sustainability committee. We approve it by majority. Seventh section, we propose to vote on the amendment of several articles of the company's bylaws. The modifications are subject to authorization by the supervision authority. We provide the shareholders as part of the documents the report by the board. There will be four points in today's agenda.
In the first section, we propose to amend Article 7 of the bylaws to recognize the right to know the identity of the different shareholders, and so that it's an intermediary entity. We approve it by majority. Second section, we propose to amend articles 19, 22 B, 24, 29 so as to streamline the functioning of the board through remote means. This is contemplated in the bylaws in force. We incorporate some technical specifications regarding remote attendance to the AGM. 7.3, we propose to amend articles 31 and 31 regarding the policy of sustainability and corporate social responsibility according to the good government code, and we will incorporate in the capacity to supervise the elaboration process of financial information and also non-financial information. We propose to amend Article 35 to suppress the casting vote of the chairman.
We approve it by majority. 7.4, amendment of Article 4 of the bylaws regulating with the possibility to inform about operations to be approved by the board and to supervise the internal procedures established by the company for those issues that have to be approved. On the other hand, we want to expressly state that we will inform the government about this information.
Eight, nine 10, and 21. Yes. Regarding the statutory initial provision to allow such provision to be made by telematic means relative to the vote, the way it's admitted. Other precisions are incorporated if the information is available, updated and verified. Based on the data we have, it is approved by a majority. Point nine, capital reduction by means of the cancellation of treasury shares to be acquired for that purpose. Provides for the establishment of a series of conditions of reduction of capital by 10%, leading to the cancellation of treasury shares.
The definitive amount will be fixed by the council, and the reduction of capital will depend on the company, which is a title holder of such shares, and that will be based on a reserve with certain conditions on its availability. This incorporates a series of rules, documentation. Now, documentation for this has been made available. It has been approved by majority. It's point 10, the approval of a remuneration policy of the Board of Directors up to 2025. This will reflect the remuneration of the delegate members of the board. This has been made available to our shareholders and based on the council and based on the remuneration commission. Based on the data we have, it's been approved by majority.
Next point, 11, delivery of shares to executive directors as payment of the variable components under the company's remuneration system. It will be pluriannual, and it will approve the delivery of shares in the year 2023 and the following five years, that will be based on the remuneration rules. This will be a maximum of EUR 914,000. It is based on the data we have, that has been approved by majority. Point 12, approval of the maximum level of variable remuneration payable to employees whose professional activities have a significant impact on the company's risk profile. That's based on Article 34. That's been made available to shareholders. That's been laid out in detail. It's approved by majority.
13, authorization and delegation of powers to interpret, correct, supplement, implement, and develop the resolutions adopted by the meeting and delegation of powers approved by a majority. 14, consolidated vote on the annual report on directors' remuneration for the financial year 2021. It has a consultative character. It's been made available to shareholders at this AGM. It's been approved by majority. 15, information on the amendments to the regulation of the board of directors approved by the board of directors at its meeting on the 20th of October 2021. Information on the amendments to the regulations of the board of directors agreed by the board of directors at its meeting of the 17th of February 2022. That will get rid of the casting vote preexisting condition, that's been made available to shareholders.
Those modifications and the council's findings were put at the shareholders. That's been approved by majority. Sixteen is the notification of the report of the board of directors and the report of the independent expert for the purposes of Article 511 of the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2010 of 2nd of July , enacting the restated text of the Corporate Enterprises Act. We have finished, President, the votings. The law in certain cases allows for publication to take place. The CNMV regulatory body, according to the CNMV rules and guidelines, has reflected the fine of EUR 950,000 for non-compliance as committed. That is being taken care of. We have finalized our considerations here.
We will now go to the shareholders and have any see any other claims or allegations before leaving the table and leaving floor. At this moment, the voting process has concluded according to the order of the day as was publicized. I thank the shareholders who were here physically and also telematically. All of these proposals were approved by the necessary majority. For technical reasons because of the telematic presence of a non-telematic presence of people who are here live, we will now set forth our conclusions as set forth in the law. With that, we conclude this AGM of shareholders. I would like to thank your presence, your confidence, trust with us. Have a nice day. The session here has concluded. Thank you.