When I presented myself to the Board of Directors to talk about our performance, I have to talk about the future more than about the past. The figures are showing us not only the potency of the economy of La Casa, but also credit solidity and the prestige we have. We must have the economic force and make it available. It must be a mean to be able to cover all the requirements of life. We have to continue and also use the popular economy, penetrate all kinds of regions end corners of our territory.
We cannot tolerate in any way the non mobility. La Cascia must to really change what must be improved because we need to progress. And we must be absolutely convinced that we can spend, the horizons of the new entity. That enthusiasm of all of us can take our entity to the prosperity we wish with work in mind and persons in your heart. And today, in Caixabank, we continue to be loyal to the principles of Frances Moragas expressed more than 100 years ago.
And we do it with our clients, and we contribute to the financial well-being through the best advice with products and services that are the most innovative ones and the most advanced technology of the sector. We do it also with our shareholders. Their support, which is decisive, make us the leading bank of the country. And we do it with our employees because we share a culture which is based on people, cooperation and flexibility with honesty and transparency, being close to them and being committed, always responsible and demanding. And we do it with the society to contribute to the progress of society through initiatives as inclusion, financial education, support to diversity, sustainability of the environment and also our volunteering sector because we goals.
We still are a social responsible bank and entity. We are caring for our territory and our environment because persons have been and will always be the core of what we do. This trip started with those that believed in a different kind of banking entity and discontinued with the generations that took the lead and made the effort to make this project and take us into the entity we are now for millions of people to improve their lives and renew their dreams because in Cascabank, people have been and still are and will be the first important
thing.
1st of all, people. Shareholders meeting of CACHA BANK in my own name and on behalf of the Board of Directors, which is an honor for me to be the chair of. I would like to thank you for your attendance, most of all, to those that have been coming from far away and also for those who follow this Board of Directors through Internet connection. This Shareholders' Meeting has been called to talk about the annual accounts of 2018 and all the rest of the agreements of the different items on the agenda. The Secretary will talk about the figures of the call.
And if you all agree, we consider it red, and then we will go on with the attendance figures. Yes. Good morning, ladies gentlemen. The call of the shareholders' meeting was published in the Trade Registry end with a relevant fact, February 26, 2019, as of that day. All the relevant information is published on the website of the corporation as established by the capital law.
And since April, it was also self published and a clarity note of the corporation, which does not affect the report which we have in our annual accounts and what is now submitted for voting. As of this moment, we have to say that the shareholders can take the floor, ask questions, give remarks, as is stated in the clauses. So you can contact the table in this room, at the end of the room, where you can register showing your card. And then you can obtain a card when you can fill out your data, your personal data because you would like to participate. Then the voting according to the items on the agenda consists in the following: after the reading of each of the motions for its resolution, we will ask for the votes against and then the abstentions contributing in favor, although shareholders do not manifest the contrary in the voting or the extension.
We ask all the shareholders, if they want to show their vote against all the abstention, to get up to raise to stand up when they are asked for it. And then the chair will decide to consider it approved, of course, also with the possibility to have the information that will be published further on. If you are against. You have to stand up. You have to fill out the different possibilities on the card, and you will have it at the other side of the card that you receipt at the moment to register for the participation of voting.
For that, you have to contact again disabled at the end of the room and then present this card so that it can be realized and we can count the votes. You contact these tables at any moment during the meeting. The shareholders that leave the room before or during the voting and still want to make the statement that their vote is not counted as in favor, can say so at the table. We have the list of attendants with the figures that show the cards we have received. And according to it, it is as follows: attendant and also the postponing, 15 EUR 27,000,000 are representing with 47 sense of the share capital.
Represented, we have €1,900,000 and also the 1,700,000 shares, which are also representing for example, we have also the 2,510,000,000 and that is exactly the 3,000,000 871, and it represents 64.3% of the share capital. After this reading, we decided this meeting is opened, and we give the floor to Mr. Oscar Calderon, the Secretary as is stated in the rules and also in the Capital Corporations Act. The Board of Directors has also asked for the notary to protocolize it in a deed. And also Mr.
Rubio is present I give the floor to the secretary, Mr. Calderon. And fulfilling the rules of de commercial registry. We asked the attendants if there are protests against the validly constituted this meeting. Also, shareholders can now express their votes against as against the constitution of the meeting.
No votes against, no protest, no objections. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Also Bondia. And good morning, and welcome to the Annual General Shareholders Meeting of Caixabank. Thank you very much for your attendance here today, mostly to those that have come from far away to be together with us.
It's an honor for me to be the chair of this meeting, which is the ending of 2018, but also the ending of the strategic plan between 2015 2018. It has been a period of 4 years. It was full of important targets with low interest rates. We have also operation of PFA and VPI to the group, the crisis, the transformation in the digital world and so many other targets and challenges. And the team of Cascervant has proven its capacity to manage it successfully in a very, very complex environment.
Along this period of time, the group has reinforced its commercial leadership. It has also improved the solidity of the balance sheet and has been able to focus on those things we do best, which is to offer the best savings banking to our customers. This has helped us to improve profitability in a significant way and to achieve the targets we had in our strategic plan. All this their commitment, their effort and also congratulate them for all we have achieved these 4 years. I would like to underline especially the job of Gonzalo Cortafel, our CEO, leading the human team of Caixabank.
One of the items on the agenda is exactly the ratification of Mr. Gonfalo Gottafa as the direction as CEO and also the ratification of the members of the Board of Directors of Mrs. Maria John Reed and also the appointment of the new directors, new members of the Board of Directors, Mr. Marcelin Armente and Mrs. Cristina Garmendia.
Thank to all for their availability to continue being part of the Board of Directors or be now as a first also included the Board of and I would like to start to thank Mr. Javier Ibarth, Alain Mank, Juan Roche, Antonio Saenz de Vicuna, who will now stop being directors as of today. I would like to thank them for their dedication, their support, their commitment to the entity during the years full of challenges in which they have been part of our Board of Directors, if you allow me, also in the difference to the community of Valencia that are hosting us, the same as I did last year. I would like to continue in Valencian language. Tent, please.
Forgive me. I apologize before I start because my accent is not the best Palenciyan accent. Several moments ago, I said that what can we do about and say about our discipline. Allow me to explain why. Why I can say it has been a success?
Because we have reinforced very significantly our leadership in Spain. And that is shown in the general improvement of the different shares and commercial penetration during these years. For example, payroll, vision during these years. For example, payroll figures, more than 3.5 higher during 20 2018, reaching the 26.3%, which is very important if we take into account that we were starting with a very high level in 2014. In Portugal, as you know, the acquisition of BPI, which was the best bank in 2018 according to Euromoney, meant and important step in our growth in 2017.
This last year, we have acquired the resting shares in monetary hands up to the 100%. Now we have the opportunity and the challenge to start with the successful retail banking model. We have in CasaBank also in Portugal. This success has also meant that we have a very good income, core net interest income, savings insurance, which have grown 3% in last year. So the last 4 years of the strategic plan, up to €8,700,000,000 €8,700,000,000 together with all the efforts of the expenses and the reduction of the cost of risk has been translated in a very significant improvement of our P and L, which has been increasing until the €19,800,000,000 and also the tangible resources and its return.
The ROTA is a high level also, 9.3%, very important with respect to the level of the bank. And then profitability has also reinforcements of liquidity was in December 2018, a maximum more €179,000,000,000 and also a LCR of 200%, almost 30 percentage points versus 2014. With respect to solvency, we have finished the year off in capital ratio. CET, common equity tier, fully loaded, 11.3 percent in the range which was established in our strategic plan. As well, we have very important steps in the reduction of assets, the NPL ratios and all the other assets that are nonstrategic for the entity in order to be able to concentrate on our core business, the NPLs, which and the NPAs, which also are very important, 8% of the sale of the real estate portfolio, NPL, has dropped more than 5 percentage points with a closure of this year below 5% with respect 2 other assets, which are nonstrategic, Repsol sale, which we have just and the share in that.
So and also in Bursa Bank of Asia has just been finished. We are starting at a very good basis to achieve the targets we have fixed to start with a new strategic plan until 21, 2024. We know that we must go on in making more efforts to be able to achieve them. We must do it in an environment that will be very, very demanding. And of course, it is possible that the world economy will be established in the coming years in a moderate growth going through a more major period of the economic cycle.
It should be positive for us, but there are uncertainties and environments could make it and turn it into a volatile. And we are seeing in 2018 'ninety because our trade tensions, according to the United States, Brexit and also the monetary policy of all the bankers on both sides of Atlantic. And in this context, Spain and Portugal are growing above the eurozone, still above the eurozone. They are based on the internal demand because the external demand is dropping and is not as strong. So we have been receiving the benefits of the crisis and the for example, the external debt, unemployment and also social deficit.
For the next years, we have to reduce the levels of public debt and also to go on with the reforms to be more competitive and also to fix the basis to be more inclusive so that nobody is left outside. And then with respect to the monetary policy in the euro zone, we have the interest rate still very low. It will be kept like that for a long period of time, in our opinion. In China, we've seen several weeks ago when the ECB delayed the first increase of interest rates until 2020. And they also announced a new round of debts to be able to continue with the maximum liquidity level.
And at the same time, it seems that liquidity level. And at the same time, it seems that the ECB is starting to think about this negative trend in interest rate and also deposits, which was something that started in a moment, which has already been overcome when we kind of deflation. This would be a good decision, a positive decision. With respect to the volume of business. We think that it will be a moderate growth in Spain and in Portugal.
In combination with the environment of low rates, we are still having this pressure on the interest rates. With respect to our clients' resources, we think there is a higher need of financial planning pension plans. One of our strategic priorities is precisely to continue to reinforce our role as reference advisers for our clients and take advantage of those opportunities we have in this tendency. And then the environment is showing us also another challenge, other challenges. And one of those is the revolution of data and mobility.
In the digital world, our clients are demanding. They require more immediacy, personalization of the service and also low prices. If it's possible, it should be for free. And thanks to these technological innovations, you have business models which are innovative, new models, which is more intense. You have the Big Tech.
You have all those new models like fintech and so on, which are part of our value chain and put a pressure on our margins. But digital transformation also offers a great opportunity to be able to interact more with our clients, to know each other much better, to offer a much better experience, which is a service that adapts to their requirements and their expectations. We have already proven that we know how to take advantage of the digitalization, and I'm absolutely convinced that we will continue to do so. At the same time, the sector will also have to face a regulatory framework, will be very demanding and also uncertain. With respect to the balance sheet, entities do not only have to fulfill the highest regulatory capital requirements.
No, they must also issue, the debt instruments that can absorb the losses if it is possible. The prudential regulation is also attitude of regulation of behavior to assure that we have only good commercial practices, but also to be, well, more protective of the data and the privacy of our customers. Those are very important issues, very important and serious issues because we share the sensitivity with them and because they are a source of competitiveness for us, we see how important it is to be as transparent as possible, as integral as possible with a governance model which is solid and assures and guarantees the most important way of behavior in financing and in all the sectors where we are active in an environment which is marked by a very regulatory pressure and also diligence, there are no margins for error. And third point, we must be aware that clients and also the whole and the rest society, are expecting for the big companies something more beyond a normal good service. They expect also that companies get involved, involved in the process and progress of our society.
What do I mean with that? They expect higher social responsibility of activities. And the pressure on banks is even stronger after the big economic crisis. So it is a high target. And to fulfill this target, we will be able to get back the confidence and trust of the economic sector and the banking sector.
We have always believed in this. Banking in a responsible way is a sustainable source of values for shareholders as well as for clients, employees and the whole of society. That's why the fact to have a socially responsible bank is something we have in our DNA, and it is part of our mission. As I would like to explain in the following minutes.
So now with the new strategic plan, which has, as Motto, people come first, we have used the opportunity to talk about our mission, which is already 100 years old, which we now express more directly and simply our mission is to contribute to the financial profit of our customers and the progress of the entire society. This is easily said, But the repercussions are deep and have been taken on by the entire organization. With this mission in mind, we have defined what we want to build and achieve throughout the new strategic plan, our vision, how we want to be in 2021. We see ourselves Seeing more leaders in Commercial Backing in Spain and having extended our business model to Portugal, being more innovative, more agile and more flexible, offering the best possible service and constituting the reference entity In socially responsible banking, in order to make this vision true, we have to find 5 strategic line and many action plans that stem from them. These lines are in the first place to improve the experience of our customers in all our channels.
So placing technology at the service customers and the second place, to accelerate digital transformation of the entity technology within And the third place, to promote the agility and execution of project and cooperation between teams. These are 2 central elements of our culture in our corporation. 4th, we want to achieve attractive and appealing profitability for our shareholders even if the environment continues to have very low interest rates. Our goal is to reach RoTE above 12% in 2021, increasing core income and improving the efficiency ratio and keeping the cost of risk at under control. We will continue reinforcing the capital levels anticipating to growing demands of regulations.
And then finally, the 5th strategic line is doing all the above being also a reference in socially responsible banking. So tending social needs beyond pure financial intermediation. I said this last year here, idea. This is a differentiating value that we have ever since our foundation. We are committed with the benefit of all the communities where we are present.
We do this because we believe in it, and we show it day after day. We contribute for over 110 years now to financial inclusion of citizenship. We are present in 94% of the towns in Spain, municipalities in Spain, which have less than 5,000 inhabitants. And we have Microbank, the and reference in Europe in micro credits. We also promote initiatives that promote education and financial culture of the population.
We have 22,000 social housing units. And last year, almost 15,000 Casa Banca employees participated in different volunteering activities. We also defend environmental sustainability. We have been the 1st bank in IBEX 35 to compensate fully compensate our carbon footprint. And in the new strategic plan, we both foster the sustainable financing and issuance of green bonds.
We actively participate in international events in this field. We have adhered to the principle of responsible banking of the UN promoting finance and want to integrate in the business management all these environmental and social considerations. And of course, We continue to have our link and our bond with the Obrasocia La Caixa, the social work, which nourishes part of its budget, reaches €545,000,000 this year with the dividends received Baikalha Bank. We are proud of what we do with the foundation. We are proud about people in all regions where we are.
The commitment of all the professionals in the entity With our mission and our values, quality, trust and social commitment, which continue to be unaltered, allows us to Be optimistic for the future. CaixaBank is a success story that projects into the future with ambition and very firm foundations. I would like to finish presentation highlighting our commitment with all of you, the shareholders of Caixabank. At the beginning, I was saying that the execution of the strategic plan, 2015, 2018, has been very good one. And this has been shown in the good behavior of this year compared to other banks in a context where shares of the banking industry have not had evolution we would have liked them to have.
The total return of the Caixabank share, which takes reinvestment of dividends into account has been around 13 percentage points above the banks in IBEX 35 in 2015, 2018 and 10 points above if we take into account only 2018. If we do a comparison with the Euro Area Bank last year, our shares was 15 points percentage points higher than the banks in euro stocks in 2018. On the other hand, It is true that the evolution of this year in the Q1 of this year has not been good, mostly due to the downward revision of the expectations of interest rates I mentioned before and also surely because of the announced effort of investment and entity restructuring for the 1st year of the new strategic plan. But I am assertion that we will continue to prove our capacity to generate results cost will reinforce our business model and our capacity to generate value in a sustainable fashion during years of a plan and then in the longer term. I believe that this expectation is reflected in the recommendations of analysts, 66% recommend purchasing our shares 14 percentage points above last year.
And also, the share. Cashabank share is more liquid, increasingly liquid and has more room for negotiation in the stock market in 2018, it's 5x higher than 2,007, a fact that is shown because of the increase of number of shares. The free float, which represents 56% of the capital in the entity. These years, we have also continued showing our commitment with dividend. And if you approve this today from the 16th April on, we will pay complementary dividends in cash, 0.18 gross per share in charge remuneration for the shareholder corresponding to the year 2018 will be 0.17 gross cents per share, which equals the 51% of the consolidated net profit.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And it's placed aligned with the objective established in the strategic plan 2015, 2018 of distributing at least 50% objective of paying out over 50% of the profit in cash. So, Andy, remuneration corresponding to the year 2019, we expect to pay out in cash cash between 50% 60% of the consolidated net profit. And this distribution will be done in a single annual payment And just to finish, I would like to mention the task of shareholders consulting committee. I would really like to thank them for the dedication, for their suggestions to, among other things, improve our attention and relationship with all of you. Ladies and gentlemen, all shareholders, thank you very much for your trust in the project Represented by Cashier Bank and our distinctive way of doing banking on our behalf.
Just remain assured that we will continue placing all our efforts, our knowledge and our commitment to continue contributing value and values. As our founder said, as we saw in the video at the beginning of event, Frances Morava. Moravas, we will do this with having work in our hands and people in our heart. Thank you very much for your trust and your attention. People come first.
We are like a family. We are a very big family, 400 people. There's children, there's adult, older people [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And all types of needs. We cannot stop coming because they give us a lot. They give us much more.
My daughter has been diagnosed with an autism disease, the autism spectrum. And many times, we cannot cover all treatments. When you ask her about her day in the swimming pool, well, you can tell by her smile. To work on emotions means that, that person can change their actions at a given point, and that's what it's all about. That's what we want, to change attitudes, behaviors, following the guidelines.
We can change a lot. The name KALI was chosen because KALI was the fire that Seems to not be there anymore. It has been just left at the bottom. And if you have the capacity to slowly blow it up, you can shape it up once again. All the dimensions of the person, that's what We try to take care of.
It's not only the physical part. It's not only symptoms. There is a very special situation in life that's with the end when you're leaving. And it's somehow important to bear all this in mind, give as much relief lakasha to their soul, and that's certainly provided by the people there. People come first.
We will now hear from Mr. Ngoor Kassar, our CEO, who will perform his presentation. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen in the Board And to all shareholders, good morning. Thank you very much for your presence here and specifically those coming from abroad, but also all the Valencian people who are attending here.
And I will be also talking in valencia. For a while, it's a pleasure to once again address this general shareholders meeting. Before I start my explanation, I would like to Thank you. Thank the City of Valencia and its people for their hospitality and their very close treatment and friendly and effective. In today's intervention, I wanted to focus in 2 aspects.
In the first [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] To what is awaiting us and what we propose doing in the next 3 years. So which are the 2018 highlights. Well, in the first place, strengthening our position in the markets, our leadership position, specifically, our position in the digital world secondly, the reduction of non performing and non core assets. This has been very significant in 2018, nonstrategic and travel assets nonperforming assets. And something that is nice to say here in this AGM, having placed profitabilities at more appropriate levels and closer to the profitability that the shareholders of Caxaca Bank should expect after these many years of work.
So starting with this highlight, the reinforcement of our competitive position. For many years now, we have managed to maintain and reinforce leadership in the market in terms of penetration and customers, how many customers in Spain work with us and how many do it. Considering as our first entity, and as you can see on the slide, the reality is that both general permutation of customers and those who work through digital channels continues to grow and in a differentiating manner compared to our main peers Who benefit from corporate operations, but they're still standing far away from us in this position. So going into more detail On key products and this evolution where the year 2018 has sort of been the end of a full year plan, we can see market payroll orders, 26.8 percent and also long term savings, which is the one that adds the most value to our customers with these shares in pensions, in life savings insurance and sometimes above 25% and also in the rest of the business with very important figures above 15% And also a sustained growth throughout the years. Be in no doubt that this is key.
This is the key for any organization's success, having more customers with more income, more satisfied so that they can achieve more market share. And I am very lucky to lead our magnificent team who achieves great successes year on year on this aspect. And a proof of this is that we not only have this leadership in banking, but we've also extended it beyond that to general financial activity, and we maintain that first position as 1st country in life insurance, as manager of mutual funds and pension funds as first health insurer, as first company in cards and payment methods, which mutual funds and pension plans and savings. We have a market share of 21.8% in Spain, which has increased 0.5 percent. It was in 21.3% last year.
So a very highlighted position of a clear leadership that continues to be reinforced. And this is logically done through our staff. We have our staff, which in this regard And this allows us to provide our customers with a differential added value. This is what they're looking for, and this is what will allow us to be different to our competitors if we now move on to the assets, the year 2018 has been a very significant year in terms of activity, a growth of 1.8% of the healthy portfolio. It seems to be low, but that Spain continues to reduce their loan exposure.
The financial sector continues deleverage. And as you can see last year, the financial sector dropped in 1.1%. We have grown That one point one of our healthy portfolio, which makes us feel very satisfied because we have grown cautiously And the concession of risk and in the setting up prices, some figures logically. Well, we can see the loan Board work. The mortgage have also gone up with an increase of 9% in the new production of mortgages, but the mortgages balances are still being reduced.
Consequence that amortization of mortgage exposures continue to be higher than the new concession of loans. In Portugal, we completed in 2018 the 1st full year being in control of BPI. And we also included our stake. We now have 100%. We are really side of the evolution of BPI, which has a very relevant commercial strength despite the change of control, which Always mislead a bit.
In our case, this has not been so. It has really achieved very good result. Consumption lending growth, 4.8%, 10.7% business lending and also market shares increase. And it has managed to identify €125,000,000 in synergies, which exceed what we had projected To achieve with BPI when we started the purchase operation to over 2 years ago. So once again, BPI Steve's Askasia Bank once again, as you've seen on the previous slide, an external recognition in this case, not best digital bank, but also best bank in Portugal in the year 2018.
Awards shared with CaixaBank, best bank in Western Europe recently. So a certain degree of external recognition, which is always motivating for teams. Secondly, the reduction of nonperforming and noncore assets. As I was saying, the year 2018 has been a positive year in the sense. In nonperforming, we have Reduced over €3,000,000,000 as you can see in NPLs.
The NPL ratio is now on 4.7%. We were coming from 6, so a significant advance here. We have the best ratios than in the sector Also completed our important real estate operation of our foreclosed assets portfolio of around €5,000,000,000 to Lone Star. This has allowed us to accelerate assets available for sale in a context of a balance that comes close to €400,000,000,000 So in this sense, we have managed to end a problem that has been a significant one for the entire Spanish Banking Center coming from the strong realistic crisis that we experienced. And in 2018, we took some positions to reduce our exposure 2 noncore assets with the goal of reinforcing the quality of our income statement and reinforce the focus that we on our banking activity, insurance, financial and recurrent activity in Spain and Portugal.
And that's why we made the decision of the divestiture in Repsol and the reclassification of our stake that we have through BPI in Portugal in Banco de Fomento de Angola. These are decisions that in the short term had led to lower results in 2018. But in no doubt, it will make us a more firm bank with more quality income statement in the future. And we have also maintained balance sheet, highlighted by the liquidity ratio and solvency. The liquidity coverage ratio had a regulatory minimum of 100%, so the average of the last 12 months for us has been almost double, 196%.
The solvency levels, Well, the Chairman already mentioned them. They're good and gave us a very significant margin on the capital requirements requested by the ECB, lower than other stakeholders in European Banking Sector. And we have not only seen the situation, but also the rating agencies Have awarded us throughout 2018 and each and one of them have improved their qualifications for the year 2018, recognizing 2 things. On the one hand, improvement of the risk profile risk risk profile and the improvement of the profitability, I want to now talk about in the 3rd place. So going through the P and L account in greater detail, we start with our income items.
And as you can see, this has 2 big categories, basic income, core income that we have and also some other results, other income, which are truly positive in 2018. Basic revenues have increased 4.2%. As you can see, interest margins and fees both go up to 3.4%. These are significant increases given stagnant situation of the financial activity and the insurance business contributes notably to this. The other income have Increased even more.
They contribute to the P and L accounting. They have greater volatility. So we don't include as core income or revenue, but logically, They also add up. And in 2018, they have been particularly good in comparison with the year 2013. So following the P and L account, the gross margin results increased by 6.6%, but the recurrent expenses 12.7%, which is a good figure.
The core efficiency and the comparison between our basic core recurrent income and our expenses is at 56.4 percent with an improvement of 3.6 percent in percentual points, which was at 60% 3 years ago. And then finally, the lowest part of the P and L account, we're always seeing provisions and other expenses. They drop By 15.8%, but we need to say that provisions because of loan exposure are at very low levels. As 0.04%. We have had some good news in terms of recovery during the year 2018, and we have included here the negative impact of some decisions, which are important to improve the quality and to improve the and to improve the future of the P and L account, such as the consequences of the sale of the real estate portfolio, the divestiture in Repsol and the reclassification of our stake in the Annulies Bank, BFA, which has had a fantastic year in terms of results.
This improvement of profitability led us to this €9,800,000,000 as a result of the year, €1,900,000,000, almost €2,000,000,000 This means profitability on our ability on our equity, tangible equity and treasury shares that we need to pay out of 9.3%. This is figure we feel is satisfactory because it reaches the levels that we had set that range between 9% and 11% in the context of the strategic plan. We also need to be aware that business of figure that we still want to continue improving. The conditions of the market are not easy, and we need To have placed our focus and be disciplined and invest all our efforts and our staff's efforts day after day in order to and improve this objective in terms of profitability, which by the way, these 2,000,000,000 given the size of our balance sheet, which allows us to compete. It's generated proper profitability.
The most relevant figure is not absolute profitability, rather the relative one to having this compared to the 9.3% and our own equity, which stands within reasonable levels. And this is my presentation, the three highlights of 2018, reinforcing the leadership in the market and significant reduction nonperforming and noncore assets and achieving adequate profitability. I would now like to briefly talk About what we expect for the next 3 years, specifically what we want to do in the next 3 years.
And the first thing is to be realistic and to be also aware of the fact that we have important challenges in front of us in the financial sector. We are not the only sector with important challenges. The whole economy is now in a profound changing environment, of course, due to technological changes. But today, we must be the ones to take into account what happens in the financial sector. What is happening?
First of all, a change of behavior of the clients. Clients are looking more and more for transactions through channels that go automatic, like the digital channels. So the transactions have being shifted from an office, a physical office to the automatic channels, digital channels, which is the 57 10% of our clients. Those are active in the digital channels. So offices are now doing task of added value, less transactions that can be replaced by remote channel actions, and now we can give added value.
I was talking about 14,000 employees, and that's the best example of what we are doing. We are guaranteeing that we have specialized people, that they can differentiate the service with a real added value service. And that means investment, investment in training and people and also to adapt our distribution network. I would like to talk about that also. On the other hand, this is a substantial change of the behavior of the clients beyond that, which also something that is happening in time because on the at the same moment, you have clients that are looking for digital channels, but then you have also other clients that have these digital channels but like to visit our offices, our branch office because they like to receive this added value services and also other part of the clients who do not contact the channels and they come to our offices.
4,000,000 clients are actively visiting our branch offices. So we have to take into account all the groups of clients. We have to cover all the services for all kinds of clients. And that's a very important challenge. And this challenge it's something we are facing in a complex world with low interest rates in the last 4 years we have negative interest rates, and the first direct consequence of that is that then the profitability is also objective on the volumes we can capture.
It's very competitive environment, which also is a consequence of an overload of liquidity, more offered and demand. We have seen a 1% drop in the credit exposure. We have seen it just now. And a lot of liquidity means that the ECB to solve an economic problem with good criteria, a long time ago already started with very effective conditions for banks. But that means, of course, that you have a secondary effect, which means that you have differentials of credits, which are very competitive, very good for the customers, for our clients, but it's a challenge for us to be able to increase our profitability, profitability of Grupo Acacia Bank.
So cost of risk, as I have just said, has dropped to levels which have the tendency to go towards 0. So we cannot expect aid in that sense, and we want to continue our cost of risk through the provisions that still are very low during a long period of time if we don't change economic conditions, but it's difficult to think that we are going to receive help and support for that. So the need to invest means and configures an environment we have to challenge, we have to face. We are not afraid, of course not, but we have to work on it and continue to work and it all the hours of the day to be able to overcome those challenges, the same we have done always in the past. We have always overcome very, very complex challenges.
In this environment, we have started this strategic plan for 3 years with 5 strategic lines, 5 lines which had been mentioned by the Chairman just now. I would like to go over them very fast. The first, the experience of our customer. Our start and finish with our customers. If they are satisfied, then business is possible.
If they are not satisfied, it won't be possible. That must be core in our thoughts. And in Cascibank, we know it. Customer is always key. It is core for us.
It's key for our success. And we have to remember it always. And if we forget, and then, of course, our business manager reminds of us immediately. Everything is inspired in our customers. But with respect to the change of behavior of the clients, what are we doing?
First of all, our network must be changed. We have optimized it. We have updated it, 1st of all, to have a more potent urban offices, which are the store offices there where it is possible. And of course, we are also going to bet on the traditional branch office. We have a development.
Of course, we are also going to bet on the traditional branch office. We have a lot of them in our cities. But we want to bet on bigger offices with a more technological vision and focus, where we can have higher specialization of our employees to be able to give satisfaction and service customers. We're at around 300 stores at the end of 2018. We are in a process now where we want to double, more than double this amount of these kind and types of offices.
It has been seen as a success. Also, the advanced and expanded opening times until the end of the afternoon. Customers are satisfied. It means also that you have more expectation, not also of the clients but also of our employees. And we want to solve this process as best as possible.
But this is very important that there's than €200,000,000 are going to be invested here to reinforce our urban network. At the same time, we want also to reinforce our rural network, the more than 100,000 we have there. And it is a network of 1100 rural branches. And of course, it is a network due to this loss of transactions. Ability beyond that year.
And we have it our plan. We have this commitment of the financial inclusion to be aware and to be present in all the villages and cities office, Spain. We are the in many of these villages and cities, we are the only bank there present. So we are also managing more flexibility, and we are negotiating with our union leaders to have more flexibility for the coming years. And at same time, we are also encouraging the digital channels.
I've said before, 57% of our clients are using the digital challenge, 6,000,000 employees. We think at the end of 2021, it will be the 70% of our clients. That is the way to go. That is the track we have been going the last year, several years already. And there is nothing that is telling us that it's not going the same direction.
We have different initiatives, detailed initiatives. I don't want to go into details at this moment. And we are also betting on an in touch model, which is the remote personal adviser that is based on the technological channels. It has been accepted and acknowledge very positively by our clients, and I'm sure it's going to grow very profoundly in the coming years. So you can see we are talking persons.
Specialized employees are giving a service to other persons. You can do it physically through our branch office and also remote through the digital channels. And all this means that you need a less person but more technological specialized ones. Then we have the technological revolution. We are now just closing the 100% of our processes of the strategic plan until 20 team.
Everything digitalized. All our employees have already the capacity to be able to work digitally. Their operations on smart PC or tablets, and we'll continue on this track. This technological transformation must empower us as an entity to guarantee that all the changes of the customers that make us go faster can only be done if we have the basic innovations on the technological level. And that is a very important role of artificial intelligence.
We have been already studying it. We have been updating it, and we will continue to do it in the next strategic plan of these 3 years of the period we have in front of us. That's why we can achieve the successes in the past and have all the trust and all the reliability on the employees we have. That's why we are investing in the trainings. That's why we are helping them, giving new opportunities employees.
In the last years, we have created 6,300 new definitions of positions, of jobs in our entity. In the coming 3 years, we are going banking advisers, premium banking advisers, business advisers, in touch model advisers and This is a redefinition of the positions we have in the entity in banking activities, also training our employees and also recruiting people from outside the company with new talents for to cover these new positions. And we also have to do it in a cross sectional way. We must be agile. We must be flexible, taking into account and using the technological development.
And in this way, we have to keep up the pace. We have started with initiatives, very important ones of diversity protection gender equality, not only with the program, which is very important, ENGAGE, where we are really committed with the development women in CasaBank. And in the whole of the society, at the end of the year, we're already at 40% as the percentage of managing level employees, female employees. So we will continue with that. It has been very successful.
But of course, we will do it also externally, as the Chairman has said, with all kind of entities. We have also a mission, end. We have an impact beyond our entity on society and want to continue with that. Well, profitability is a very important figure, of course. Here in our shareholders meeting, we have a target.
We want to go beyond the 9% we had last year. We want to achieve 12% in the coming year, which is a challenge, which is complicated. And we want to pace it also with a solvency position, which will continue to be in very high levels, 12%, and also to build a 1% of an additional buffer that will help us to compensate the regulatory requirements which have been announced and must be applied. That will mean a very important effort for this commercial success we have had so part. This basic course we have must continue the same way despite the fact that the interest rates will resources and equity.
They are moderately positive, but they grow in the end only a little bit. So that means that we must make the effort to continue our income to increase our income, and that means that we have to make an effort for very strict solvency levels. These were the important 2 things. Income must increase with a high efficiency and cost management. We can be the best on the market, but if you don't have cost efficiency management and
you cannot keep up with those service levels,
so we have demand, and you cannot keep up with those service levels. So we have to go both tracks. We will go on with the NPAs. We want to go on with having solvency, credit solvency and also in capital and liquidity. And then finally, our last leverage, as has been explained in detail, our Chairman, our social responsible banking with 5 important areas of action.
I don't want to go into details because then I am repeating what has been said. But it gives us the feeling that we have a different mission. And part of society because we are in a position to be able to do it. This nuclear, this core situation, a position we have in the economy, in a circular economy, and this vocation we have also since the past already, to be a bank with a social target, thanks to the vision of Francesc Moragas, our founder. And we must remember something else because our social function and our profitability can go hand in hand because now we are today, we're showing how the figures of 2018, which, in my opinion, are good.
That is good news for our shareholders and for the employees of CaixaBank, but also good news for society. And it's good news not only because it allows to keep our activities. So that means we can go on granting credit, helping with savings of our clients, but also because this €2,000,000,000 as a figure, a big part is part of the foundation, La Casha, €8 €100,000,000 that are reinvested and impact society through our Obrasociaal program, our social world, which is unique in the world and helps us and allows us to combine this profitability with a social bonus domestic and offer society. And of course, we offer it also to our 6 more than 600,000 shareholders, private shareholders. Some of them present here in the room and also the investors, institutional investors.
You are the owners of this petit. And I finish with my last words. We are going to invest in our core business, being closer to the clients, the proximity to increase the profitability that will allow us to take this profitability and turn our entity in a really sustainable entity. We have to look forward and not backwards. What are the challenges in front of us?
What do we have to face? And what kind of decisions that we have to make to be successful in the future. Thank you very much, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. You very much, Mr. Cortazar, for your presentation.
And according to the recommendations, 3rd recommendations good governance of listed companies approved by the CNMV. It is now the moment to talk about the most relevant effects of Caschen Bank since the last shareholders' meeting. In this sense, I would like to underline the motions that now are submitted to the shareholders' meetings for the resolution, which have the aim to reduce the amount of directors of the Board of Directors by 2 persons. That means the total of 18 directors of the Board of Directors will be now 16, 16 directors. On the other hand, we have the reelections of 2 independent directors and the appointment of 2 new directors.
One of them is a lady, an independent lady director. These appointments and reelections actions of members of the Board of Directors, together with the reduction of the amount of directors, allows us to get closer to the best practices of good governance, keeping the adequate proportion of independent peers and a huge amount of diversity and knowledge and also specifically with respect to the gender diversity, percentage of ladies, female, which is 37%, 5%, going beyond the 30%, which SD level foreseen for 2020. On the other hand, we have a news, and that is part of the agenda, a separated item for its approval is this also the approval of the consolidated non financial information statement for the year ending and social statement, also diversity, respect of human rights and fighting against anti bribery and so on. With all this, with the aim to contribute to be able 2 enterprise, correct, supplement and implement development of the resolutions adopted general meeting. I would like to inform you also about our revisions of policies, corporate policies, for example, corporate governance, the definition of the group structure, dividends policy and so on.
We have defined the governance policy, the internal rules of this of the company, and we underlined September 2018, where we approved diversity and assessment policy of the directors, part of the Board of Directors, top managers and other functions, key functions on Caixabank and its group. That means that we want to fulfill this idea of perfect fulfillment of the rules of the management, taking into account gender issues but also knowledge, experience, specialization, profession, age, geographical region so that we can guarantee that the decisions are taken independently, autonomically ability and always in benefit of the entity. With respect to the recommendations of good governance and also taking into account the 3rd clause of the rules of good governance. The Secretary will take the floor and talk about a new code of good governance by CasaBank. This is the annual report of 2018 as a relevant fact also mentioned to CNMP in February 2019.
And the recommendations governance are included. They are fulfilled in the 100%, 85%. 2 recommendations are not fulfilled, and one recommendation is not applicable to the company. We have CREs, the fulfillment, the compliance of the rules with respect to the CREs financial year, and 80% has been field, and the 100% of recommendations that we fulfilled have not fulfilled 2018, the recommendation 1362. With respect to recommendation team at the end of the financial year 2018.
The amount of directors was fixed on 'eighteen. The amount of the directors reported directors, 5 committees and also the shareholders' agreement of the future with Pankaj Silica, which implies, at this moment, the designation of 1 additional director. But as the Chair has mentioned, one of the proposals that was submitted to the Shareholders' Meeting is the reduction from 18 to 16, the directors of Board of Directors. Then we're getting closer to the amount that is recommended by the CNMV. Then 62, recommendation 62, the shares that are part of the liberty of the annual bonus and which are subject to a specific recommendation agreement of 5 years and 2 months as a free period.
And after this period, it should it is not necessary to keep it. And then with business targets through the MALOS clauses and COPAC clauses and remuneration structure, the remuneration in shares for the directors corresponds with the half of the variable remunerations, which is compliant with the potential regulations of not taking risk and also in line with the targets and the sustainable evolution of the activity. With respect to the recommendations that have been fulfilled partially, with respect to recommendation 5, shareholders meeting in 2016, approved the empowerment for the Board of Directors to be able to approve the variable remuneration and the tools for it with the exclusion of the substitution of preferred rights and that the Board of Directors can approve the authorization for 50% of the capital and not the 20% of the capital. With that, we can perceive the maximum flexibility with the available tools for the integration of a regulatory capital. Secondly, with respect to recommendation 10, it's partially complied, taking into account Board of Directors with a different voting system based on the agreements has been proposed by the Board of Directors of Shareholders' Meetings.
That means that we take into account the voting, the amount of people that are voting, the way of protesting during the meeting at their contradictory with the recommendations guaranteed transparency in the count of the voting and the adequate counting. On the other side is also the recommendation has been partially compliant, but this is a good practices, best practices of the company with or without specific instructions according to the opinion of the Director. It facilitates also the fact that you can take into account the result of the debate of the Board of Directors and then different other aspects of the companies of the companies of the group. The bank was listed, but BPI stopped being listed in 2018. Nevertheless, there is an internal agreement between Caixabank and BPI.
The Board of Directors of Caixabank continuous of last years to encourage the different policies, but we will inform the shareholders in due time. On the other hand, complying the requirements of different requirements as close 115,000 of the act of supervisory authorities of the Bank of Spain, 350,000 as section according to the act, according to the restriction of mortgage guarantee products and also 3,000 3,600,000 also due to the act due to discipline violations of the transparency and mortgage granting. And CNMV has also sanctioned the entity due to the Refunding Act with 750,000 tourists because the inflection of the 'twenty four act with respect 2 d client service SM with respect to the incentive plan by 3rd parties, institutions and so on. Thank you very much, Mr. Calderon, for your statement.
I give the floor to the secretary again, how many people we have. The quorum attendance, $15.54 We have 2,725,000,000 shares, which is 45% of the share capital, represented to 1999 shareholders, which is the 2,500,000, which is 20 percent of the share capital 9,500, which are holders of €3,900,000 which is the 32% of share capital. So we ratify the attendance, and I give the floor to the notary. Taking into account the requirements, I ask you again if you have objections to the attendance, the share capital present. If there are objections against the valid constitution of the shareholder meeting.
That's not the case. You can take the floor now. If you wanted to be on the record, in the room so that they can check it when you take the floor. So it can be included in the record. I give the floor to the secretary.
As the secretary has just mentioned, we open the floor for the persons who have asked 4, the possibility to take the floor. You have the microphone here in the middle of the room. If you have not asked for the floor, then you can do so, going to the table at the end of the room where you can see a card that indicates that you can get registered. And then according to the rules of the shareholders' meeting, the time for each of the shareholders to take the floor will be 5 minutes. I would also like to say that if you do not have the information that the shareholders would maybe request according to the rules of the shareholders' meeting and also the clauses of CNMV, you have 7 days after the finishing of the meeting to new requested.
Okay. Then we open the floor for the questions of the shareholders. And remember, it's 5 minutes you have available. What we were going to do is to ask the persons to present themselves, introduce themselves. And also, the second person will be asked efforts to get close already to the second microphone so that we have the possibility to not losing time.
Giuseppe De Marfa, you are the first one. You can use the microphone on my right. And then Mr. Damian Garcia. Bartolome, please get close to this second microphone so that we can continue immediately.
You've got the floor. Good morning. Good morning. Buenos dias. Doucette Demafras, 50,000 shares.
First point I would like to mention, I'm economist, beds, also pharmacologists. And I would like to say so and remind you of it. In a pharmacy, in a neighborhood, in a village, we have a social observatory. And in my years as a as member of the consultative Board, it was very, very useful. Many people during this transformation period breadth of branch office into stores, mostly old people, elderly, but not only the elderly, have difficulties, and they complained.
And my proposal is as follows: During this transformation, I would assign, during 3 months, a person to help, to advise, to support persons who are not used to work with computers or with ATMs, which are getting closer to looking more like PCs at home. So people who can give the support. And not only 3 months maybe because close to my pharmacy, the 3 months go very fast. And many people come to the pharmacy, and they complain that they don't know how to do it. And the very kind lady who was helping them is not there anymore.
So I think it should be longer than 3 months this period to help people. Point 2. Legally, it's possible. And I would say not only possible, it would be also a very good idea that the shareholders' meetings could be in different places than where the company has its registered office. It's just something that can be decided by the Board of Directors and then approved by the shareholders' meeting.
Happens at different companies, companies with the headquarters in Madrid, and then they hold their meetings in Barcelona and also vice versa. So that is proposal number 2. I propose that we can hold the shareholders' meetings without going away from or without leaving Valencia. We can go back, for example, to Barcelona, not always holding there the meetings sometimes, maybe, in normal, usual and legal way. And that's, alternatively, in Valencia or and why not, maybe sometimes in Madrid or in Bilbao, we could held other meetings.
It's bad to see such a low quorum of such an important entity of the Spanish banking, the most important Spanish bank we have that it's very, very bad situation. If my proposal is approved, then we would have attendance is 5x bigger. If here we take away the consultive board, the special guests, the journalists. And so on, it will only be 4 or 5, just a handful. So that's my second proposal, goal to be able to solve this.
In Barcelona, we would have much more people attending. But also, if you go to Madrid or Bilbao, it would PR Novelty, and people would be delighted to attend. Sabadell has solved it partially, but with a trick. And more or less, they fill the room with their managers, branch office managers, but that's trick. You shouldn't do that.
And point 3? It's very important and also very nice, the involvement Caixabank has with the foundation, La Caixa, since so many years and even increasing and getting more and more involved. But several aspects, fix, in my opinion, could be improved. It's difficult because we are doing a really good job. But to have a financial entity and maybe link it with G and O is very important, and it's also very good.
It's unique in the world. It's like the Sagrada Familia Church. It's like the Castellers, the human towers. People think that it is Catalan, but it's not anymore. It was Valencian.
They come from Valencia. That's tradition. It was a Valencia tradition. What can we solve? The involvement of shareholders.
We have almost achieved the involvement of the employees of CasaBank and the Foundation as volunteers. And also, more and more, we are seeing clients of Casciban are involved and getting involved in the foundation, working as volunteers. That's beautiful I see it. I live it. So we I think that only the shareholders are missing in this situation.
And this was a proposal of Mr. Feynin. During many years, I've been part and member of the consultative board. And it has not been possible. We have to achieve that shareholders get involved in the foundation and work as volunteers.
That's all. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much, Mr. Marfa. And now we will be hearing from Mr. Damian Garcia Bartolomei. And I would ask Rafael Roch Garcia to get closer to the other stand.
So Mr. Damien Garcia, you have the word. You have the floor. Well, my intervention is on the possibility of equity 2 weeks ago, in the same place, Bankia approved the first amortization of own funds, Liberbank, second example. Also taking this to the nearest AGM, according to them and among other things, this is done because there is a great differential between the value and the price of these shares and because we're already reaching the cap of the equity or fully loaded requirements that Here, we can start thinking about something similar to this.
I think it would be very beneficial both for the entity and for the shareholders, I insist. The way others are doing or starting to do. I also know there are other entities who are thinking about it and will probably Next year, the acquisition of Equity or Own Funds for the amortization. Thank you very much. That's all.
Thank you very much, Mr. Damian Garcia. And now we will hear from Rafael Roche. And I would I'll ask Edouard Maestres to please get closer to the left stand because he will be next. Good morning, Mr.
Chairman, ladies and gentlemen and the Board of Directors and all shareholders. In the first place, I would like to We claim that the only ideal place to celebrate the AGM is where the registered office is. So in Valencia, it would not the right to ignore that right every entity has celebrating the AGM In the place where they have their own registered office. In any case, this also depends on the fluctuations of the normality in some situations, I remember. And I was told by some university colleagues in Barcelona that recently, they tried to celebrate a tribute event to Mr.
Miguel de Cervantes in the University of Barcelona, And this was prevented because they considered that the organizers of the event were anti democrats. I don't know whether these attitudes would be compatible AV and the University of La Sorbonne. They did a tribute to Balzac or Moliere and 300 people came along shouting, no fascists. Well, that would be my first information. And the second comment I wanted to make, Based on Mr.
Gortazar's presentation, is that specifically there's 4,000,000 customers who still following the traditional methods of onboarding with the banking activity. And I was also a customer, but I was essentially a customer of Banco de Valencia. And Banco de Valencia in the main registered office in the 1st floor, they, on some could have the opportunity of performing purchase and sale activities. There's not many days. Locally, it was on the 22nd January, Sambicente.
And locally, we'd be talking about Saint Vincente Ferrer, always on the Monday following this Easter Monday, 19th March, 9th October and the 6 state holidays, 6 of January, 15 August, 12th October, the national Spanish holiday, 1 of November all Saints and 6th and 8th Now the 12th October will be a Saturday, and the 8th December will be a Sunday, too. So relatively speaking, we're talking about 7 days that could Integrator onboarding of customers with the company, especially in the registered office. I don't think that Banco Hipalaen Teres more than La Caixa. It hardly exists. But that bank has the contractual bonds during those date.
So why not or why stop doing this? You can talk about the digital revolution and Internet, but I think it would be I wanted to talk to Mr. Gortazar now to ask him a question. In the brilliant presentation that you've done on institution, an NGO over 100 years old, 106, which is Casa Caridad. Casa Caridad every day Gives over 400 portions of food to people without resources and who do not have any economic possibility.
They don't ask Board to the entity as in Casa Caridad. And finally, I would like to point out very favorably that you have tried to reinstate And all debt, cultural debt that you had with the city of Valencia, the absence of Caixa Forum in Valencia many years Approximately 15 to 20 years ago, in the first floor of the current Urbana in the city hall square, There was the opportunity to fix expositions. I know that CasaBank has done temporary expositions exhibitions, such as the one in Marques del Turia and Gran Via. But given that you're going to use the agora, there's fantastic exhibitions going on And done by the foundation, the one on Velasquez and the international world in Barcelona, I was able to visit and also the Toulouse L'O trek and spirit of Montmartre, which I also visited, all the ones in Madrid. This last one in Barcelona was done in cooperation with the Brado Museum using the last century anniversary and also in collaboration with the British Museum or also the exhibition in Palma de Mallorca with the Caraland Pindra and Gala Camaraza and the one in Sevilla with the exhibition of the atomic blue.
I think it would be a very good thing for the city of Valencia, which was created 1000 of years ago. It's even older. And the year 126 before Christ, it is what's called the Athens of Spain And nothing more. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr.
Roche. We will now hear from Edouard And I would ask Maria Barro San Martin to please get closer to the other stand. In the first place, I would like all attendees or tell all attendees here to come here for many years. I'm Edouard Maestres, You're well and very well attended to. I have been a customer of La Caixa for 72 years.
I have been a customer of La Cascia. I was the 1st year in Valencia. I was the one actually crossing those doors. For me, La Cascia is very important and is one of the pillars of our Catalonia. Currently, La Cascia has had to deviate for not very nice reasons and SPE in Valencia.
And we're here in Valencia, and I can say something. During this last year, company with staff. I see them more motivated and more willing to collaborate. But I also have to say that I haven't liked at all to cross the big door today and see all That people there protesting. I have never seen ever in Barcelona or anywhere so many people protesting.
Ladies and gentlemen, this means something. Take a good look. You need to support more the workers and the trade unions. Now we want to have a layoff process or well, you have meetings, and you have been thinking a lot about this. You think this is all very the layoff process.
You think it's all very easy because all employees in La Caixa, from the top one to the bottom one, should make as maximum what the president of the government makes. Without that, we wouldn't need any layoff procedures. They wouldn't be necessary. We have to open up to the public, and [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] We need to be more Valencian because here, the employees coming from the Banque de Valencia actions. We need to think about the wages.
It's a shame for all of you in the Board of Directors. 40,500,000 per year. Who are you? Who are you? What have you done?
You're just normal people. Explain 3,500,000. 3,500,000? What for? I mean, what do you do?
What do you do to get 3,500,000? With another condition, shares started at 125 and now they're next one. Let's continue. Banque Valencia. Banque Valencia, EUR 4,100,000,000 to the government, and you only gave EUR 1, EUR 1.
Let's see what you do with the shareholders of the Banque de Valencia and this magnificent headquarters that you path. Now for you, which is one of the most important and relevant buildings in Valencia, and you now say this headquarters [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] You should say this was given to the small shareholders of the Bank of Valencia. They were just given away. Let's continue. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Cash Affordum.
You know Cash Affordum. I'm always asking for pressure for Luminon AGM. Now you boast that you have their social work because As you've doing it for many years, and you extended and extended EUR 17,000,000, you haven't spent anything. You were given a building which is heritage of all valentians, all of us. It doesn't belong to you.
And what did you give, euros 17,000,000 here in Valencia? La Caixa has invested more with valencians. And valencians need to be more a bigger part of La Caixa because in 2013, you had the year without losses, thanks to the EUR 4,100,000,000 of Banque Valencia. And I have to say goodbye because I would stay here I would tell you many things. And if you want one day, I can come to Barcelona, to your offices, Just want to say goodbye with my cry.
Thank you very much, Mr. Maestres. Now we will hear from Mariam Paros San Martin. And could we also have Rolf Bolanes prepared in the left hand? Good morning.
I am Amparo San Martin. This is the 1st year I can attend AGM and meeting at the General Shareholders Meeting. And the questions I've always wondered and asked myself when I've been to the bank Simple things. But why? The Princess Christina, our Royal Princess Christina is in the payroll here in the bank.
It's quite shocking because of the expenses. All the people who are in the bank Currently, there is unemployment regulation and that actually saddens me. And if we bear in mind That the Royal Princess Christina is also included in this enrollment regulation. And I always feel well attended to when I go to the entity, to my branch in my area Because of the humanity and the close treatment and professionalism of Everyone working in the entity. Thank you very much.
And this is my intervention. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. San Martin. We will now hear from Ms.
Ruth Bolanos, and I will ask Mr. Pedro Manuel Firstly, I want my intervention to be in a minute. I will deliver a copy. I am Rupa Lani Joao Andleras. I work in bank.
And I'm talking to this AGM representing a group of shareholders, workers in the entity, families and customers who have delegated intervention in me and also their voting for the trade union of Comisiones Sombreras, and I thank for their trust. Caixabank closed 2018 with net profit of 1,985,000,000,000. And these results have not Come on their own there. See some of the efforts, dedication and personal waivers of all the staff, JPY 1,985,000,000 of net profit. I repeat, €1,985,000,000, which should have been subject celebration and reward for the entire workforce.
But the reality today is truly different Because there can be no celebration when we are threatened with forceful employment measures with 2 2,157 dismissals. There can be no celebration when we are talking about forceful mobility in exchange for There can be no celebration when the conditions of the workforce are going to be worsened, which precisely who precisely have achieved those results. No celebration, no reward, at least for 99% because for some, for a few, There is reason for celebration and reward because this AGM wants to approve that The maximum top executive of Cascia Bank gets up to 200x more than an intern, 40x more than the average salary or wage in Gaxaca Bank. Who raised this salary 10% on 2018? Because 20% of the items devoted to bonus is granted to less than 1% of the work force.
Then we're told that people are coming first. Well, do you really believe that this is credible at all? I am going to tell you something. You're doing it really well, really well if what you really intend is to end up with this proud feeling of belonging to Gaxaca Bank. If people are truly or truly come first, please Prove it and withdraw all these forceful measures.
No dismissals, no forceful mobility. Human Resources argues that all these measures and actions are necessary because of the strategic plan, but this is not so. The strategic plan And become materialized in many different ways. And you have chosen the hardest for the workforce, Comisiones Obradoras. The workforce and Comisiones Obradoras as a representative Hurt, disappointed and angry.
We want to ask something from you today. We want you to reflect and stand in the shoes of the 30,000 people who daily make up Caxabank. We are sure That you can do it much better. And for this reason, in the first place, withdraw all the forceful measures, and let's Bell that Tasha Bank, where people are truly or truly come first. Secondly, Make your proposals more humane so that other needs work needs can be covered, such To see a quality plan and schedule control improvements in loans and training, regulation of professional careers and training.
We've always been capable position and the leading position. I'm sure there is another way. We need to start working as of now. And We will vote no to item 7 motion 7, 8, 10 12, And we will abstain in motions 2, 3 and 9. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Bolanos, now we will hear from Pedro Manuel Villasana and Mr. Francesa Vate Varga left. Please get closer to the left stand. Mr.
Board shareholders. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Good morning. My name is Pedroia Fane. I'm President of the Employee trade union, Gashang Bank. And I'm representing the trade union platform, Gashang.
And Given the redundancy scheme that we are experiencing, we are in also my the FEC, FTC, UGT, ELA and I'm This trade union platform Represents almost 60% of workforce in Francia Bank. And additionally, all trade unions have We cannot start this contribution
without
congratulating the best workforce in Spain because of its preparation, because of productivity and achievements. This workforce, after having achieved record results in 2017, have been capable if you want to truly think about a heart that is bombing as one of an Olympic athletes, you know what that is. That is our staff. We have said that we've had 2 consecutive years of unprecedented results, and we are now Seeing a proposal of collective dismissals, which is also unprecedented, €2,000,000,000 profit corresponds or is corresponded with 2,000 It's a strange way of showing gratitude to the workforce that has contributed decisively to the achievement of the objectives strategic plan that ended in 2018. So having reached this point, we need to indicate that our votings to the accounts will be negative Since we don't truly know what figure to stand with, the ones that we have here as shareholders and is talking about fantastic figures and numbers All the ones that has been presented in the negotiating desk for the redundancy plan, they Want to show as a catastrophic situation.
What is the truth, Mr. Gordazar? The company would justify all these bonus? How could they justify all these bonus they want us to approve? Or is it the entity that, for the future, It's so triad that needs to dismiss 2,157 best workers in the financial Spanish landscape.
Or is very difficult to comply with as the impact we all know about on the share price, a plan that That covers many changes in the work conditions that should have been agreed with at the trade units before their design. What is the sense of a plan that depends on labor changes that they cannot assure? You tried to force the approval of the trade unions with the threat of over 2,000 dismissals. You are relatively new here, Mr. Bordazar.
And I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. And one of the pillars we had always been there was social peace and a relationship of mutual trust in respect between management and respect for workers. You need either to correct your position or leave. Mr. Shareholders.
Please vote no against the renewal of Mr. Bortazar as CEO of Gansha Bank. We need to think about this very significant figure. We are talking about a platform that reunites or unites 7 out of the 8 trade unions in CaixaBank, 7 sections that on the 28th November last year, not even 6 months ago, were competing amongst themselves in trade union elections. I of the CEO.
So our vote will be in favor of 5 4, 541 and 11 and against item 1, 3, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.7, 8, 9, 10 12. And then the rest, we will just abstain. Thank you very much. We will now hear Mr. Frances Sabate, Frances Sabate Margalef, and I will ask Mr.
David Montesinos Garcia
Good morning. First of all, I would like to ask that it is included in the minutes on the record, please. Mr. Chairman, Mr. CEO.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Board of Directors, ladies and gentlemen of shareholders, I'm Frances Sabate Margalez, General Secretary Adjunct of the CACHA del Salvis de Catalunya and also on behalf of the platform of unions, which has been created because of a redundancy plan OCT, UCT, GCT, ZIG and ELAP. This platform is a union platform and is the jointly created group, which is representing part of the employees. And we have been delegated the votes of friends and family, relatives, many, many shares. More than 2,500,000 of shares are being now represented by me. We cannot start without really congratulating these employees due to their involvement because these employees, after having Chief, the record result in 2007, have been able to go beyond that and even be better in 2018, we have seen in Obrasocia, social work, that is the soul of Caixabank.
But if you are thinking about pumping heart, the pumping heart of an elite athlete. That's the heart and the soul. That's the team. That's the headcount. Those are the employees.
We have said 2 years in a row of record figures, and then they show redundancy plan, which is unprecedented. 2,000 dismissals, but almost 2,000,000,000 profit. That should be something that cannot get linked because they have been decisive to achieve the results of the strategic plan that has been registered for this financial year. I think that is worrying, and I think that shareholders will agree that there is a discrepancy between the speech where they are using at the negotiation table, telling that this is traffic, but at the same time, they are telling the shareholders that everything is perfect. And then we ask ourselves, what is the truth, Mr.
Bortafa? The company that is fulfilling the strategic plan. Is that the basis for your bonus you have asked us to approve? Or is it the reality of this exhausted entity that needs dismissals, 2,157 dismissals. What is the reality?
Please answer to that. And despite all this, it is happening in the framework of a new strategic plan, which you have said just now that maybe is not achievable. And it is well known by all. It's a plan with a lot changes in employment conditions, terms and conditions that should have been agreed upon with the unions. What sense does it have such a plan that must be executed, which you cannot guarantee after these obvious steps, you try to force it on the negotiation table with the threat of more than 2,000 dismissals.
And my colleague has already mentioned that you are new in this house, Mr. Gordafa. And believe me, more employees. And we would like are much longer here than you. We'll see how long you will last in this financial vector.
One of the pillars on which Caja and Cascia Bank is founded was D social piece and also relationship based on mutual trust between measures of employees, employees and clients, and we think that you have broken this piece. So either you correct it or you leave. Shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, vote with us against the renewal of Mr. Corteva as a CEO.
If what I have set does not convince you, we invite you to think about the following figure. We are talking about platforms. 7 out of 8 union actions represented in Cascabank. In November 28, they had union elections, and they can assure you that something very terrible must happen in a company that almost 60% of the union representation are against the performance of the CEO. So according to all this, more than 2,000 votes we represent are going against Motion 1.
Motion 3, Board of Directors, performance, 5.2345, reelections the 4 directors, including Mr. Cortazar, 0.578. These are motions regarding the incentive plan, the strategic plan, remuneration and the maximum variable remuneration. Maybe taking account 7, 89, the ones that really deserve this redundancy plan are the ones at the top of the pyramid. I gave the floor to Mr.
David Montesinos. And Mr. Navarro, please, can you go closer to the other microphone? Mr. Notary, please.
I want it to be in a minute. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, for shareholders, members of the Board of Directors, Chairman. I am David Montesinas career. The same as my colleague who is going to talk after me, I'm going to talk on behalf of Banca Armada, which is Septem end studies for peace, Fundacion Novasendas, Observatory, also for international issues against armaments. I'm talking on behalf of funds and arms companies.
Of more of the 1,200,000 that has been invested in arms company between 2013 2018 by Caixabank, almost €10,000,000 had financed Indra Company, which is in format of investment funds and bonds. And Muuto, it's a company of Spanish state, which used 27% of its turnover for flying simulators, electronic defense, electronic arms. They have a Stark product where they have the high technology. We have the Eurofighter, which is a missile warplane. Also, the helicopters AIGA, which are used by the Spanish troops in Afghanistan.
So that means that Indra is providing arms and armament material, and they increased the insecurity of the people who live in those countries, and they force the people to leave and to try to find somewhere else to live shelter in other countries. So the amount of people that have left their countries is more than more or less 68,000,000 68.5 percent, I said. It's the drama of the wars and of the refugees because they do not only export the arms that are encouraging the violence, they also are based on the benefit of the agreement of the frontiers of the European Union because they are one of the companies that are selling these devices and also the ones that are controlling the flows of the refugees that are trying to reach Europe. So it's a perfect business. On the one hand, they are causing all the violence and all the suffering.
On the other hand, they Toronto people that are flying from there and want to enter the European Union through the southern frontier. So these are companies that are helped Bai Cachapang that are really influencing the human rights and all the movement of the people. And one of the solidarity studies has stated that Spanish companies that received the support of Cascia Bank have been intervening in Africa and have been killing more than 600 people that have died close due to that. And that is what they have been doing and causing their Chairman, members of the Board of Directors, shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, what comes first, ethics and values of human lives or business for war?
To invest in companies that sell those arms. That's real investment in people and in dividends. We think that it is very clear to make this decision. That's why we have come again, once again, need to stop investing in the company called INRAND, any other company that are involved in this business. It's causing a lot of suffering and violence and death somewhere else in other parts of the world.
We are involved. We are the ones that are causing it. We are the instruments. We are the mediation that helps them to be able to constrict and to build all these arms. We must do it due to human reasons.
Cascia Bank should stop to invest in those companies. And then they want much more ethic assets and the reputation, the image, the society we have of CaixaBank. It's a decision you can take. You can take today, today during this shareholders meeting. Thank you very much.
I would like to ask Mrs. Cristina Oleg Rodriguez to go to the other microphone and give you the floor, the next speaker. Yes, I would like this presentation of my words to be included in the minutes. Half of September, Center Dela, Studies for Peace, Foundation Novas Endes, Justicia Ipau, Office of Territory of Teotec Global Itatio, FECT anti malicious mock. I'm talking on behalf of 11,280 TSH shares, which have delegated their vote to us to be able to speak here and talk about the investments in companies that build arms and weapons and to talk about the consequences of your investment, the levels of violence and instability as also the different conflicts have increased in the previous years.
War is not only one of the most important causes of death and violence in the world, has a lot of the impact for civil society. It's also hunger, destruction infrastructure, sexual violence, kidnapping amongst them, violence and the armed conflicts in the Middle East are continuing and continuing entities due to the flow of arms coming from the European Union. Spanish state it's still the 7th power in the world of arms export. Now you ask yourself maybe, what does it have to do with CaserBank? And why do we mention it during the shareholders' meeting.
During 2013 to 2018, Casablanca invested more 1011,000,000 in the Army and in Arms and Weapons Sector, 12,600 €1,000 for companies Maxsan, Indar, Taizen Kau, Leonardo, Airbus groups and Rolls Royce amongst them. Maxam is one of the companies service, one of the biggest one in the world. It's a company of the Spanish state that builds all kind of explosive for civils, for armies, different medium size, light weapons, subequate 1, also car bombs. 1 of the countries where they sell this explosive is in Saudi Arabia, which is a country that's been fall since many years in the Yemen War. We should remember here that this company, Maxsan, were responsible for the fabrication of the different types of bond, which didn't stop until explicitly it was forbidden.
Despite everything, MACSAM is being held with more than 91,000,000 by CasaBank. Another company, Textecens Rab, is also an important company that builds submarines and also warships. It was published in Germany. That day gained a contract for many dollars to be able to build these warships for Saudi Arabia and also have invested 1,000,000 in this company. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, members of the Board of Directors, Mr.
Chairman, with big credits and investment funds. You grant these companies to build war material and weapons. You are involved. You are co author of the war and of armed violence that kill every year thousands of lives. That is the reason why we are here today, once again, another year, so that we accept the responsibility as a bank and stop investing and supporting companies like Maxam and other companies of the armed sector.
Thank you very much. I give the floor to Mrs. Maria Cristina Espek Rodriguez. I would like to ask Mrs. Sara Verano Caballero to come close to the left microphone.
[SPEAKER VERONIO CARPALLERO CARPALLERO:] Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good morning, members of the Board, shareholders. I asked a notary to include it in the minutes, but not literally because I cannot offer a written text. We attend the shareholder meeting on behalf of Aikal and also on behalf of the small shareholders that have delegated their votes to us to defend their interest despite the fact that these shareholder meetings are representing a model of governance where the control of the entity is in the hands of the Board of Directors.
On behalf of the clients, the small savers of Cascia Bank, we would like to remind Cascia Bank and Foundation that the majority shareholders are the ones that are the clients patient and damage of the bank, you should take into account precisely exactly these users. These are really the soul of the cash. Adikae. 1st of all, with respect to the floor clauses. The demand of Adikai in 2018, the court, the provincial court, efforts in favor of them in first instance, including the retroactive effect marked by the European Court between the 1st March until 2018, this application has not been accepted for this sentence by the banks and passing it towards the High Court.
So now it has been transferred to the High Court. With respect to market costs and FEMSA. EDI Kai has present application together with the clients of mortgages and credits of Cashier Bank last February. Class demands against CaserBank due to abusive clauses and mortgages regarding the expenses to sign the contract. This is abusive.
It has been declared several times by the European court and also by high court. In both cases, Caixabank has only left the possibility to take them to court because there was no possibility of negotiation. And I want to underline here specifically colleague. The figures that have been given by the Bank of Spain on its website, which is the result OpDA Supervisory and Sanctionary Authority. 2018, we sanctioned Casa bank for an amount of €5,150,000, 5,150,000, due to the following infringements and offenses: Because of the fees by the resolution of paying off the market, Act 41seven, also for reference indexes.
Then also the Act 14thirteen, also redounding of interest rates, infraction of the Act 40 fourtwenty 22 and also because they have infringed the requirements of pre contractual information according to occasions not only by the European Union of the Circular of Bank of Spain, Circular 5 2012. But I would like to congratulate the Bank of Spain because finally, they are defending the rights of the Spanish clients. And then according to everything I have said, we would like to encourage all the shareholders, the small ones and maybe not so small ones, so that they go on controlling this banking entity because the sanctions and all the other fines will affect our dividends. They will also reduce their profits. And at the same time, I would like to encourage Adi to well, to also come together with ANCAIA to defend the different savers, clients of Cascia Bank and other banks.
We will go jointly and this battle until the end. Thank you very much. I give the floor to Mrs. Asara Serrano Caballero. We'd like to ask Mrs.
Emilia Iniesta Voloz to go towards the other microphone. On the right, good morning. I would like to ask my presentation to be included here in the minutes. We are on behalf of Adikai, which are representing the small shareholders that delegated a vote to us. Most of them and many of them have been affected by the mortgage expenses, also the floor clause.
We have read in the press delegates of and members of the Board of CaixaBank were saying that we not all the companies have this reputation. But the experience is telling us that reputation and the good image and also loyalty of the users it's not something you can ask for. You have to win it with your facts, something that the customer has not done. And I'm going to give you the figures. If we talk about the floor clause and the demand of EDICAR.
2018, the provincial court has judged in favor of the clients and was ratified by the first instance and also by the European Court. The question in these days is that CACHEBAN continues to with these fees and charging it due to floor costs. And that means also that they have appealed and have taking it to the high court. And they know perfectly well that 98% of the judgment and sentences are in favor of the clients. These are not figures that I am just invented.
They have been given by Justice, and they force entity to pay back the full amount that individually have been charged. Then if we talk about formalization expenses. Addika has also applied more than 1,000 claims which have not been attended by CACHA Bank. They haven't given other possibility to go back to the justice way, to the legal way. This is the charging of the fees that forces to go back to court and take them back to court.
That is not having a good impact on the reputation that has been asked for by the Board of Directors and by directors. If we talk about the index of the mortgage, the IRPH is also awaiting a sentence of the European Union. And Cascia Bank is one of is the bank that is most exposed. We have more than 1,000 of these contracts. And all these abuses I've just mentioned is not the only thing we complain about.
A lot of fees are being charged that are not linked to any of the services you are offering. For example, what happened by the closing of the branch offices. That means that 800 offices will be closed. This new movement is also going against the consumers, but it's impacting many people, a lot of neighborhoods without a branch office. And also, you are betting on the digital banking, and we hope that, that will be an improvement of the relationship with the clients.
And last but not least, I would like to underline that what we have seen in the shareholder meeting, a slogan, which is people come first. Aren't you ashamed to say that? Well, you should stop with so much hypocrisy. Thank you. I give the floor to Mrs.
Emilia Iniesta Dolos and Mr. Alejandro Gilpinas. Please get close to the other microphone. Good morning. Previously, I would like to ask that my intervention is included literally in the minutes.
We are on behalf of Endicare and the small savers and shareholders that have delegated a vote to us. At this moment, €2.8 per share, Escastia Bank. The accounting value, if we divide it under the shareholders, is €4.2. This negative valuation of the governance doesn't show very well the loyalty and also the performance of the present Board of Directors because the value of the share of Caixabank, it's fallen and falling since September 2018. So there is not a lot of trust of the investors on the accounting figures of cash balance.
If you think, for example, about Page 154 of the report of provisions where they say that has been preversion, the possible result of the collective demand and case court case of the floor clause, which is also based on the royal decree. The legal court case, which have been mentioned before, which is the Adikai macro demand. In November 2018, provincial court has judged in favor of the clients, which has been also ratifying the one of the first instance and also by the European Court. And it has also been just it has not been accepted, the appeal. So that means that it has been transferred to the High Court.
In this moment, the Extra just showed demands of Cascia Bank has also only offered to the clients until 2013. That means that the consumer, must accept it and then reject the rest of the demand they have made. It will go up to the European Court, 2016. Is not the only case where Cash App Bank is not treating well their clients and impacting their reputation. In the problem, due to the abusive clause to put on the shoulders of the end users to pay the fees.
We can also see it 50 mortgages. There, we have different demands because abusive fees in the contracts, for example, realization of the market contracts because the Caixabank had not listened to the complaints. Casimod had not listened to the complaints with respect to the case. This has a negative impact on the reputation. They have delayed the paybacks, and they have impacted the reputations based on arguments that have delayed the judgments.
We are also here on behalf of the small shareholders to defend their rights, despite the fact that these shareholders' meetings are just the scene of a governance model where the entity criteria is Foundation La Caixa. And this foundation, from the Law 20 six-thirteen, since then, the old savings have disappeared, and the relationship of the clients they had at this moment was already relevant. So the majority shareholder of Cash bank is not a big investor that has given really a big contribution. It is the one that has inherited what comes from the past. So the Foundation La Casa goes through a patronage that appoints himself, and the customers are not even mentioned.
So tronets, to have contributed to anything and not have improved any of their knowledge or experience. It should be the small shareholders and the small customers. On behalf of the clients and small shareholders, we'd like to remind Cachaca bank foundation, Kashaba, that the majority shareholders, the legitimate ones, are really the clients. Amongst ones, we also have the mortgage clients. So if you want to improve the reputation of the entity.
You should take into account precisely these kind of clients. Thank you very much. Give the floor to Mr. Alejandro Gil Pontillas. And another floor has been asked for from Francisco Jose Parkourcel.
I would like to ask him to come close to the microphone. Mr. Finn, you've got the floor. Yes. I also want to ask for my intervention to be included in the minutes.
Time here on behalf of KAIE and also on behalf of the small shareholders who have delegated their vote to us. As we have already been able to say, my colleagues that have been previous to my intervention since September 2008, below the €3 per share now. We understand that it's not strange that this happens because if we look at the accounting figures, if we look at the particular ones is 150 of the accounting report. When you talk about provision with respect 2, the infringements of the conference. It means that in 2015, 2016, it had more than €600,000 4 d provisions and for the paybacks that should be made according to the court cases, applying the floor clauses in certain mortgages and contracts with the entity.
As we have already said, this court case is this macro demand presented and filed by our entity, tea, which were already in November in Madrid, in the court already ratified the judgment in favor of the clients, which was also ratified by first instance, where they were stating that it should be done according to what was said on the European Court. Now it has been transferred to the High Court instead of facing their duties with respect to the customer. So they are against the clients, again, according to the trust we have in the bank. And for 2017, following also the royal decree, the concerning one about the consumer issues with floor clothes, they should have a specified department that can give an answer in reaction to their client. And the provision amounts to 160,000,000, 167,000,000.
And for the floor close, the only thing Cachibang has effort is to go back to 2013. That is the maximum. So that means that they have to reject anything beyond debt. So that is the application of the policy of CaixaBank of 2016 end of the European Court, where they were saying that they had to pay back everything. The only fees that have been paid back by cash Cheban correspond to those legal demands the entity has lost.
In any case, it was in disfavor of the clients that have suffered the floor clause. They have had to renounce to their rights to be able to collect everything. But we still have the floor closed with Cascia Bank. We still have this problem of bad service to the clients. It's also disadvantage and a damage of the clients, the fees and the costs they have to pay.
We think that this abusive clause, which means that the client has to pay the formalization fees, has cause and triggered many, many demands, which CasaBank has not reacted to, has not given an answer to. So once again, we have had to take Cascia Bank in 2018 to the courts. In 2018, Cascia Bank said to the press that they put, assume, the payback of these fees and also the IRPH fee. And then February 26, ICAI together with the mortgage clients of this platform, took the Cashier Bank again to the court due to these abusive clauses. So we want to remind this Board of Directors debts.
They are looking for new shareholders, but you should take into account the reputation you are creating with your actions. You have to win the reputation and not get it for free.
We will now hear From Mr. Francisco Jose Laporte in the last intervention of the day. I am Francisco Pla. I come here representing myself. I am a CASEY PONCE shareholder for not very long, and it's the first time I am in an AGM.
If I had only Attended the first part of the AGM, I would have had a very nice and beautiful image of Cauchabank, in fact. Sustainable results. That's what Dube said, good dividend with the last complementary that you have proposed and even social responsibility, which is fantastic. If I had only attended the second part, I would have a very different image. They ill treat the customer and its missiles.
And they also create world wars in many cases. So as a shareholder, I'm a bit lost, to tell the truth. This is an ordinary shareholders' meeting, so I'm really interested in this aspect. I'm not interested in dismissals or political part. I can understand their unhappiness.
Of course, I can. But what I come here to talk about, in truth, is one of the things that have been mentioned previously in the initial speech, which is the strategic plan. The little things or a few things I can understand. I'm young, use of technologies and the effect in the future. We've talked about the digitalization of banking.
We have also heard about fintech companies. And in a very specific moment, you also mentioned that customers and consumers are going to demand services for free, freemium, that's what they're called, and concern about this as a long term shareholder, if that is what I do or maybe change my position. So here, I do think that I think you call them stand branches, Which would be even bigger, maybe extend the opening hours. Honestly, the main problem from my point of view of a company is competition. And I think that here this has been noted, but I don't know whether actions are being taken because these long term actions will entail for these steps forward or advances to come very fast.
And the customer who will be coming to Caxaca Bank will no longer be the old person or elderly person who needs to get an explanation on how the ATM works, the customer that will come in the 2 years, and that will be the majority of Cascia Bank's customer using the not using Well, using, yes, the mobile phone and computers every day. So that is going to be the turning point not only for CaixaBank but for many financial entities and also companies around the world. So that point in the strategic plan is what I see As appropriate, not only Cashabank, BBVA, Santander Bank. All companies are becoming digitalized, but I think this will basic point. And as a shareholder, I don't really care if there's 3, 5 or 6 in the AGM.
I am only caring about whether those results are sustainable. And instead of having a share of almost €4, almost €3, Sarah, it's going to be worth €4,000,000 or €5,000 That's [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] What I would ask. And if you do collect those amounts and get those amounts as a wage, that's Perfect. But those results should be projected for the shareholders who are the ones coming here. So if that can be invested in society in some other ways, Much better even.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And with this, we will finish The round of presentations, and we will now answer to all of them in an orderly fashion, the first presentation or contribution. Some of them have touched upon very similar matters. So we will probably group the answers in some of the cases.
The first contribution of Mr. Thank you very much for your contribution. We will take them all into account. I Would like to say before we hear from Mr. Gortazar, who might want to provide you with a detailed answer, that I do share with you concern that I get from many different places and how the elderly people are adapted 2 or need to be adapted to the new store branches.
And as we've seen in the last contribution, talking about the young people And the digital world and new technology as well. In CasaBank now, we have customers of all kinds, young peoples who live with their smart phones and also elderly people who are used to the traditional branch and we try to find this balance. It's difficult, But we are aware that store branches are having a very warm welcome, the evolution. The assessment of customers is increasingly better, but it's something new. And we are just shaping the model as we receive the feedback from customers.
We provide more people to all to aid the elderly people. ATMs are more sophisticated, and they provide more functionality. So we will continue to do And also talking about your comment on the social action of shareholders, the fact that we have funding for social projects and also in terms of training. So these are areas that will try to deal with I don't want to whether Gonzalo, you want to add anything in terms of store branches? Well, this is our priority in this transition from traditional branches to new ones is for customers to have the best possible service in the entire process.
We're to accompany them, and we will continue to do so. We invest a lot of effort and time. And as we do more and more of these branches, we do learn from our mistakes, which we do make as any other entity so that they can work increasingly better at statistics in terms of quality, knowing Sometimes, logically, there are some mistakes and claims. There are increasingly better. Satisfaction of customers is freezing opening in the afternoons has been very well received.
But we always want to do better, and we take note in order to improve along second question of Mr. Damian Garcia was related to the buyback shares as an alternative. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Well, I will give the floor to Mr. Gortazar for this financial matter, but let's not lose sight of the fact that the share buyback and redistribution of dividends there to alternative dividends For shareholder remuneration. And we should not forget what we have stressed myself and Mr.
Gortazar in our presentations, we are still in an environment where the regulatory landscape is very demanding in terms of the capital needs. And as we've said, We have the goal and the ambition of anticipating those regulatory requirements as much as possible. And we will continue to emphasize that way of remunerating shareholders, the dividend in cash, which is the most representative element of the good track record of the company. We also have comments by Mr. Rafael Roche.
And here, I We'll talk about one of the aspects of the contribution, and maybe the CEO can cover the rest. The aspect specifically is mentioning a nonprofit organization in Valencia, which I was very fortunate to visit, which is Casa Caridad. I liked the visit a lot. I enjoyed it. It's not in the video because if we show on the video all the nonprofit organizations with which we work and which We help in the entire region.
We could probably still be watching the video, and it's not feasible. I liked I enjoyed that visit a lot. Each year, we collaborate with Casa Carrier with an important amount of money. They have a project of early childhood school, very significant one in a delicate area of Valencia. The work they do is very important.
They also Take care of advanced EU people. And It's an additional example of how the entity through its decentralized action is close to those who need it in areas where we operate. On the other hand, you have spoken about exhibitions. The opening of Casa Forum Valencia is projected for the end of 2020. And we are all waiting that moment.
It could be an additional way for the Focaccia Bank and the Banking Foundation to contribute to the social and cultural development of this land where we field. So at home, which is Valencia and the Valencia community. Thank you very much, Mr. Roche for being our customer and Your history, onboarding history, we are looking at that activity or option of opening up during national holidays. And we will reach a conclusion about its feasibility, but I do Truly, thank you for your contribution.
As for the contribution of Mr. Eduardo Maestres, part of the answer could be given now. And then the other one was more related to the workforce staff and remuneration. Maybe we could do it jointly with the presentations or contributions of the trade union presentations. His contribution as for Valencia and the Valencia Communica is quite similar to the answer to Mr.
Roach. Our commitment with the The Valencian community is full commitment. Our business is working. We have managers from this region and through the social work. As I've said in the case of Casa Caridad and other cases, we spend almost €4,000,000 every year.
We have 1400 volunteers and the social network of the foundation has spent 28,000,000 in total here. And the commitment is to reach €30,000,000 this year. So the opening of Casa Forum Valencia will be an example of how our entity has been committed to the balance sheet community, 6,600 square meters with 2 exhibition halls. And I'm sure you'll be able to see Velasquez, Toulouse Lotrec and many other exhibitions that can come through the social work of the foundation. The subsequent contribution has been my message, Martin.
And as for your contribution, you have two things to note. I would like To say that, well, as for Royal Princess Cristina, she's not a Calcha Banca employee. She's an employee of The Banking Foundation, like Asia. So we shouldn't really say anything about that here. As you know, The Banking Foundation of La Cashe is a shareholder of Creditria Cashe and their shareholders, and they hold 40% Aker Chang shares.
The second contribution is related to the matter of the negotiation with trade unions and possible adjustments of the restructuring of the workforce. I'm going to link the answer to this matter to the answer to the contributions done by Mr. Volanios, Mr. Pedro Villafane and Mr. Franzreb Sabate.
And before I give the floor to the CEO Who is dealing with all negotiations of this adjustment, I would like to make some prior considerations. The first one is that I would like to remind about what, in my case, and the CEO have been stressed in our presentation, have been stressing there. The banking industry is subject to huge competitive pressure, and it stems in existent or non existent growth volumes because we are coming from an expansion of loan levels, and we are finishing the deleveraging procedure. If we add this to the arrival of new technologies and the changes habits by customers. There's no doubt that the financial entities must react portfolio for these current and future challenges.
It is true that the amount of profit for the bank in 2018 is close to €2,000,000,000 But it is also true that the success of the year 20 '18 improvements in profitability do not guarantee the future. And it is true that these 2,000,000,000 [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] In terms of profitability on invested capital, we present approximately what the investing community requires. So it is the obligation of this Board and the CEO to actually be assured that The profitability is maintained at these levels to ensure the continuity of the bank, the proper capitalization and is necessary to anticipate. And that is why there's been a negotiation process opening in order to reach agreements and emphasizing dialogue. I would also like to stress that in this context, the criticism before the actions of the CEO, Well, I consider them they are totally unfair and unnecessary.
They are proof of total dedication. And he particularly has proven To have a great capacity for the position he holds and has deployed his talent throughout this years, investing For the challenge faced by the bank, this challenge requires a huge capacity for dialogue by ITAP management in the entity, dialogue with the workforce, with the investment community, Board of this Board and the support of most of the shareholders. And I think and I would like to believe that this He, with bravery, is facing this anticipation of the future together with the rest of the Board, which is so necessary. I have to say that it would be irresponsible for him to not have at the beginning of the plan all the necessary changes in This morning, the goal, I believe, return on tangible equity of 12% in 2021. And all this results in the fact that, well, I believe that the remuneration of the CEO, which has also been mentioned in some of the interventions as well as the bonuses and the remuneration of top management are totally appropriate Given the size of the challenge they face and also in relationship with what they've already executed in the last 4 years.
These compensations are moderate and appropriate if we take into account the size of this entity and how it compares 2 other listed companies, particularly in IBEX 35. I could actually bore you to death with huge amounts of information I have as to the size of the bank in terms of its share price and valuation and the complexity of the business I'm not going to do this because this is something public and well known. And in accordance with what we've always done in this entity. His remuneration is moderate and appropriate to the principles of the bank. Having done this preliminary contribution, I think that Mr.
Gordata should also response to this comment. I would like to take on a happier note because I think that the first thing and most relevant thing before these comments is to congratulate the workforce once again. Trade unions have Said that the results that we have achieved are thanks to the workforce, and I totally agree with that claim. That's the way it is. And I can only thank the work I do.
And once again, from the bottom of my heart, from the first to the last employee, they talked about 2,000,000,000,000 and 2,000,000 dismissals. We need to see the profit that we've had with the size of the bank in a day such as this in the AGM, I think that you are all happy that the profitability is what it is and logically That you will want to have greater profitability in the future. The profitability that we've had is 9.3%, and it is at the minimum of the reasonable trench for our financial entity. So we are not in a situation where we have an exaggerated profitability rather the opposite. We come from a very tough period in 2014.
Our profitability was around 3%. And we've had several years where we've been recovering very gradually and with a lot of effort by the work Force a lot of patience to buy the shareholders. What we're doing is fruit of the most obvious need to manage our company, which is thinking about the future. What has happened in 2017 2018 makes us satisfied and feel confident, but we come to office to actually manage the 2019 and future years. So we need to be realistic, as Mr.
Chairman said, the situations on context of the industry. They're tough. I've said it in many other meetings. And in this AGM, we find a difficult situation of transforming our business to adapt it to new times and then at the same time, very low margins, growing costs and expenses. And we need to, day after day, make a huge effort to increase the revenue and lower cost.
Just when we look at the future, we see that efficiency It's totally essential and necessary for the institution to be successful, for our customers to receive the best possible service For our employees to also be properly compensated. And in this context, we frame the negotiation that we have with our trade unions negotiation, which is obviously complicated, but a negotiation that I want to end appropriately with their support of all the people who are involved. We started at the beginning of January. We We have set a date to finish in April. It's 4 months of conversations, negotiations, which logically show our interest to work jointly.
No matter how different our perspective is, we need to bring them together For the benefit of everyone, shareholders, customers and also the employees at this institution, it It used to be Acacia. Now Acacia Bank has always anticipated to what's coming. And as we see a series of trends and we want To maintain the success that we have achieved in the past and increase it if possible. We need to take action now in times where precisely we have the capacity to do it. We will continue working, as I was saying, with a trust, and we will just do whatever we can to reach an agreement with workers' representatives.
And I also wanted to remind trade union configuration when they talk about the representation Well, they're here as shareholders today. That's why they're talking in the general shareholders meeting, and they have the representation of 0 point 5% of the share capital. So when they talk about the 60% of the workforce that supports certain things. Well, that is in the working desks, but we're talking about something else here. And your representation is what it is, representation of a series of shareholders, which, well, I think it's fair to call things by their name.
We've also had and I'm going to group this. A couple of questions related to armed banking. And Mr. David Montesinos and Sonia Canisio. Well, here I would like to say that the Board has an approved policy as per the investment in companies or weapons.
And this policy says that there's no equity positions or capital positions in companies that have the manufacturing of weapons within their portfolio. They are financed, but companies that manufacture the bombs, chemical weapons and anti personnel mines or bacteriological weapons. And we don't finance companies with activity in countries with a high risk of violation of human rights. And we always finance companies bearing in mind that, well, the destination of the final use, final use and never intermediaries. And it's not financed when the destination of these goods is in countries subject to embargo seizures.
So this is a set of requirements in the bank, and this means that the final amount financing is very reduced according to figures of the associations analyzing this matter in greater detail. These results and figures show That out of the total financing in the Spanish Banking sector, the relative weight of our company is below 2%. So this is the result of our restrictive policies and strict control we have on this type of financing.
And then we have had a set of interventions on floor clauses by Adi Kai. Okay. I'll give the floor to the CEO so that he can give details. But previously, in some of these interventions, they have talked about the foundation, our banking foundation. I would like to say some words about it, which everybody is familiar with, but they would like to repeat it.
The banking foundation, La Cascia, through the Investi, 100% La Cascia, 40% of the capital of Cascia Bank. So it is a reference shareholder, not a control shareholder. I would also like to underline something where I have also mentioned in my presentation, maybe only shortly. This entity, CasaBank, has a focus, taking into account in its activities, in its business activities, shareholders and employees and customers and the whole of society. So this said, it means that it is in front of all of our decisions in all the environments where we are active.
And this has always been prior to our decision making in the sector of the legal conflict we have had in the past in the recent past. We have a peace of mind. We feel comfortable in favor or in benefit of our entity and of our employees. Would you like to get Flora also to give some remarks? Yes.
Most of the interventions about this issue of the floor clauses, the judgments and sentences we have had, the appeals and so on. It has been already a long time that we have been working on this issue to comply, of course, the sentences of their high courts DENTE order trials. In that sense, we have offered a compensation to the clients after the finishing of the cases if they fulfill the requirements of the sentence. But we have done it case by case because the money, the resources we have are not our resources. It's money of the shareholders.
So we have to be able to discriminate when it is fair and when it is not. And in the case or in the event that it is appropriate to pay the amount and with and then the fact that they say that we do not apply the retroactive effect, that is not true. We have agreed with people more than 50,000 paybacks of these fees to the clients. It's a very important task. 270 people involved in this process at a these complaints to see if they fulfill the requirements of transparency.
I think that in that aspect, we have handled correctly and doing the task as it should be done. They have mentioned also other problems with respect Stew Mortgage fees, expenses, IRPH case. I don't want to go into details with these topics because it is very complex, and it is also subject to legal requirements. But logically, what we are doing is fulfilling strictly the regulations and judicial and legal judgments when they are final. We want to answer to all the cases, but always fulfilling the requirements and always forum to the law and regulations.
There has also been mentions about remarks about clients, relationship with the shareholders. We a lot of initiatives with the shareholders. As the Chairman has also mentioned during his presentation, virtual office, telephone departments, channels to have contact. And with the clients, of course, I have started my intervention also with the fact that our business is based on starts with and finishes with our shareholders and clients. We are gaining more and more market share.
That's not by chance. That is because we're doing the right thing. We have 14,000,000 clients. That means that statistically, trickery. Of course, we can also make mistakes.
But what is important when we make mistakes is to know it. And there, we have the channels, the whistle blowing channels, the complaint channels, where clients can present and file their complaints so that we have the possibility to solve it as soon as possible. That's the spirit with which we work. But of course, we must evolve also our branch office network. It's difficult to accuse us that we close branch office when at this moment, we have 4,400, which is much more than any financial entity in Spain.
When we have decided not to leave certain villages or cities because we want to keep our rural network, for example, of course, with the help of the unions to reach agreements to be more flexible and efficient. So we are still continuing to give a service. Well, occasionally, we make mistakes, and this transition from one type of client behavior to another one is not easy. I think we are doing it fairly well. And the figure that's good to really calm our shareholders is that we are gaining more and more market share year after year so they can be satisfied, and we will continue to improve.
Also a clarification here. Representant of Adi KAISET that the clients are the majority shareholders. Obviously, that is not the case. The shareholders are here, many of them representing a lot clients. Shareholders are shareholders.
There are 2 different pockets. Of course, we need that our clients are very satisfied. But of course, we also wants to have very satisfied shareholders. And we have to differentiate one function from the other because otherwise, what really happens is that it's not going to function. And I really think that we had to clarify that.
I would not like to take up too present of the interventions of the shareholders. Thank you very much. We also have the final intervention, whom I would like to thank for the spontaneity. My interpretation of Linda Francisco Jose Pla was a bit like Mr. Jacqueline Haidt, a little between both of the opinions, the first part of the meeting and then the last parts.
So he was a bit lost. I would like to reassure him that the bank is absolutely focused to be able to solve and face the digital revolution we are already noticing. We have pain betting on the new technologies. We are the bank with the highest market share of the digital banking in Spain. So we are already in a leading position.
But the change is so fast. We cannot stop. We cannot just think that we don't have to go on. So Imagining Bank, for example, is another decision. We have to go on that 57% of our customers are using digital channels, 6,000,000 customers.
Of course, we are going to keep this physical contact with the customers because we still have customers who want to have this multichannel contact so that they can operate with the bank on different platforms. We are extraordinarily active closing agreements with different partners in this sector, digitalized sector, to have the best agreements, the best service for our customers. And during the time, we are really improving. And we think also that our personalized focus of banking will be in success in these new technologies because I like to repeat it. In banking, we do not only work with bits, with information.
We also work with trust. So this reliable relationship based on trust must continue. And that's our differentiating way of doing this banking services. Would you like to add some words, well, that's very difficult, only that I agree with you. That is the way forward, that we have a lot of confidence in the future.
It's in a changing environment. It's then when you can really make difference versus other entities. We have seen it in the past, and we hope to be able to do it also in the future. Well, then we continue with the next item on the agenda after having answered to the questions of the shareholders. And that means that we have now the approval of the different agreements.
And I give the floor to our secretary, taking into account that the information and the documentations of the emotions that are submitted to the Board for its resolution based on the regulations. We are not going to read the complete text of these motions, except if it is asked for precisely. So we start with the motion and the documentation. The voting will be that after the lecture, a summarized lecture, we will ask for the votes against and the abstentions, considering votes in favor those shareholders that are not mentioning against an abstention. All the shareholders that want to present and file their vote have to stand up.
And when we have read the item, if we see that I have been enough in favor, but always with the reservation that the documentation and other terms can be fulfilled. If they are against or extension. Shareholders have to sign it on their format. Those cards can be found at the end of the room and also at the beginning of the meeting. They have been given to different shareholders.
And if they can ask the table at the end of the room to be registered as a vote against. So these are the different items. The one is the approval of the individual and consolidated annual accounts and the respective management report for the year ending on December 31, 2018. The votes against extensions. It is approved by majority.
Item. 1 is to propose a resolution of the motion of the individual consolidated annual accounts and the respective management report year ending on 30, 1st December, 2018, and it has fulfilled the regulations for the voting. Against abstention. Then the second one is also approved. The third one is the motion of the approval of the Board of Directors' management during the business year ending on 31st December, votes against, abstentions.
Approved majority. 4th, it is the approved post allocation of profit of 1,162,560,420 €4.88 the allotment of the profit. Here, we see the €1 €145,000,000,000, €145,000,000,000 €898,000,000,000 €135,38,000,000 which is €1,160,000,000,000 for dividends. Voluntary reserve, €145,898, €135,38 no legal reserves because it is already on the regulatory levels, voluntary reserves. And the total one is estimated for dividends.
It will be reduced according to the treasury shares Cashier Bank has, at the moment, of the payment of the dividends, which is not paid will be put in the voluntary reserve. The additional one is €0.10 per share as of April 15, 2019. Vote against extensions, it's approved bimajority. 5th item, 5th motion. This is determining the number of members of the Board of Directors within the limits established in the company bylaws, reelection appointment of directors.
They must be voted separately, the different ones. Establishing. The number of the Board members has been established. And together with the reports of the Appointment committee, the different curriculums and the different reports about the directors. This said, we continue with the sub items, 5.1 of the agenda.
We fixed the number of the Board members at spin, which is based on the bylaws. So reduce it by 2, from 18 to 16. In this sense, it has been proposed, 4, which will be now submitted for the proposal for the adoption. N5, 6 and 5, 7, there we have the different new directors. It will be cap on 16 if we cannot fulfill the vacancies which will be submitted to the approval.
In that sense, the vacancies would be kept on the appointment of new ones, maybe with a new candidate given by or proposed by the appointment committee or maybe the ones submitted to the Board of Directors in another meeting. Against abstentions approved by majority, 5.2 re election of Mr. Gonzalo Gorta Eche to reelect him as a member of Board of Directors for a period of 4 years. According to a favorable report having been issued by the appointment committee. Votes against abstentions, it's approved by majority, 5 points, the reelection of Mrs.
Maria and Para Morales as Director of the Board of Directors, independent director of 4 years of the proposal of the appointment committee. 5 point fear, re election of Mr. John S. Reid as a member of the Board of Directors, independent Post Appointment Committee. Votes against, abstentions approved by majority.
5.5, re election of Ms. Maria Theresa service on Skomte as member of the Board of Directors with the stake of proprietary director, the process of Ambacarria, Kasha and also criteria. CASA, for a period of 4 years, with a favorable report issued by the appointment committee, votes against, abstention approved by majority 5.6 percent, appoint of Mr. Marcelino Armenter Mildal as member of the Board of Directors, as proprietary direct proposal Fundacion Bancaria and criteria cash a period of 4 years based on favorable report issued by the Appointing Committee. The appointment is subject to verification of the suitability as a director of the Comstel The waiver of the noncompete obligation that was in Article 229.1 of the Spanish corporation law, which is submitted for approval additional shareholders meeting on the agenda item 6.
Voting against, abstentions approved by majority. 5.7, appointment of Ms. Cristina Garmenia Mendizabal as member of the Board of Directors for the status of independent director for years post appointment committee. This appointment of Cristina Gaminamethal has been approved by the Board of Directors, but subject to verification of our suitability. So the record of the company occupies, in this case, of this verification, not be obtained, but we have received it in February, this adoption of the ECB as an independent member of the Board of Directors.
Votes against abstention are approved by majority. 6th item of the agenda. Since January 2016, Mr. Raimendia is also Board of Directors of Embursa, XA, which is principally in Mexico. Mr.
Armenter is a Domenico proprietary director and has been proposed by criteria CACHA TABICCO significant stake in EMBORSA. With EMBORSA, they have also with directly in geographic areas stakes. So they are not coincing. So in that sense, they Cannot say that there is a conflict of interest and also maybe a conflict of tendencies. However, in the event that a potential condition may be observed and as no damage to the company is expected, anti cooperation with the arbiter to the Board of Directors provide substantive advantages to its broad experience and background in banking sector.
It is proposed according to Article 230 of the Spanish Corporation Law, that is included a proprietary director, also based on the different clauses of the act and that he can also derived from the ownership interest of from holding post the performance of the group of financiera in Bursa. And in any case, it is not on record Mr. Melvida, like every other member of the Board of Directors of Cascia Bank, he can, as such, be director in this situation and no close of interest. Against abstention approved by majority 7, approve the amendment of directors' remuneration policy of directors of the Board of Directors of CaixaBank for 2017 until 2020. Both is inclusive of proposal approved by the Board of Directors.
It was November 27, 2018 also, the remuneration of CEO, Mr. Gord Tata, for 2019. And finally, as a consequence of the incentive plan for 20 2019. We have to foresee an incentive plan, which is linked with the strategic plan 2019 to 'twenty three for the top management and all the directors of Caja Bank. That must be submitted to the approval of the Board of Directors.
End. I would like to state here that in the policy, you can find separately the remuneration corresponding to the directors and both of them separately by the Board of Directors and the proposal of the amendment of the remuneration policy together with the report of the Retribution Board. Vote against, abstentions approved by majority.
8th, approval in Acunas with provisions of Article 2019 in Spanish Corporation Law of incentive scheme, and we'll have a summary here. It is a remuneration plan, exclusive in shares and beneficiaries, our scientific management directors and key employees in CaixaBank and the company is in the group with a maximum 90 people. So we're requesting authorization for a maximum share at the beginning of the plan, 1,242,768,000, Out of which, 73,004 belong to the CEO. Their reference amount are aligned with the remuneration plan approved by the AGM in 2015, but the number of shares varies because the share prices also varied. So if the objectives our achieved payment to the CEO will take place through the application of the FARO system.
There's 3 cycles, goals, 3 years of duration starting 1st January 2019, 1st January 2020 and the 1st January 2021, coinciding with 3 years of the strategic plan. If cycle has 2 target measurement periods, the first measurement period will correspond to the first year of each of the cycles, and the second measurement period will correspond to the 3 year period of each of the cycles of the plan. Each one Should cover a series of cycles in order to know the final number of shares. There is a maximum number of shares objective allocated and as checked in the 1st measurement period, the compliance of the objective related to measurements, financial and non financial measurements, which are financial ratio, RoTE, and the evolution of the index and experience of customers with a weight of 20%. Depending on the degree of compliance of this, there will be a provisional incentive that equals to a specific number of shares.
We'll adjust objectives are also financial and non financial, the risk appetite framework with a weight of 30% and the global reputation index with a weight of 10%. According to the delegation of capacities, the Board of Directors will approved plan regulation, regulating different aspects of this, adjusting to the current applicable Regulation and the requirements of the authorities that supervise this throughout the entire life of the plan. It will be a requirement to have our ROTE reaching a minimum level set by the Board of Directors, and they will do the proper management of the plan. And the remuneration committee can change the requirements of the supervisory authorities. So votes against abstentions.
It is Approved by majority. 0.9 on the agenda. And if I'm a convertible remuneration of the company as part of itself, there Yes, the remuneration to top management and the liquidation of 50% of each amount of the variable in cash and shares corresponding to 2019 will be given before the end of the Q3 of 2020. And the non deferred percent would be reduced to 40%, 50% will be subject to deferral 5 years. And it will be Given before the Q1 of the 1st period 2021, And this amount will be increased to 60%.
The combined maximum distributable amount for Executive Directors and Senior Managers in 2020 and the 5 subsequent years that serve as a result 2019 variable remuneration is estimated at €1,481,418 before tax deductions and with volumes, providing that the composition of this group target bonus amount remain unchanged. The maximum number of shares to be delivered before tax deductions and withholdings will be the result of deriving the estimated amount maximum amount, The average market share price at closing of the trade sessions between the 1st 15th February of each year. Delegate to the Board of Directors with develop, formalize and implement this agreement to terminate it, where the case may be adopting by resolution of signing any public or private documents that may be necessary, a vote in favor a vote against abstentions. It's approved by majority. The level of remuneration for the 154 post in the group of employees whose work has a significant impact on the company's risk profile I can reach up to 200% of the fixed component of the total remuneration or by virtue of and subject to the provisions of Article 4 of Lot 24th June on Regulation, Supervision and Solvency of Credit Institution.
The sole purpose of the approval of this resolution for the 119 posts listed Under heading to the document attached here to, as an annex to the aforementioned detailed recommendation, is will affect the identified collective. Votes against the abstentions approved by mid January. Agenda item 11, to delegate to the Board of Directors With express powers to subdelegate and turn in the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors or the Board members or teams approaching the Secretary, the Deputy Secretary or Deputy Secretaries of the Board, any powers it deems necessary for the interpreting, rectifying, complementing, implementing and developing any other resolutions adopted by the general meeting, which is also authorized to make any modifications, amendments or additions, even necessary to appropriate were appropriate for the effectiveness and successful outcome of these resolutions to take the lay to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the Vice Chairman, Vice Executive Officer, the Secretariat and the Deputy Secretary of Deputies and Secretaries of this body that powers to sign and private documents and to for the 2018 financial year. This is agenda item 12. This has been divided provided to the shareholders performance these AGM votes against and intentions accrued by Mr.
Naredi. Agenda item 13, this is information For the AGM and not subject to voting. Announcement of the amendment made by the rules of the company's Board of Directors, approved by the Board of Directors and meeting held on 21st February 2019. The sole purpose of this amendment is to expressly establish that the minutes of the Appointment Committee and the remuneration committee are to be forwarded or delivered to the members of the Board of Directors are being made available at the company's Secretary Office using the same system as per minutes of the Audit and Control Committee and this is on the website of the company at the disposal of the shareholders. So once we have finished the reading and voting, we will now come to vote.
Those votes against an abstention of some motion. So please, everyone who has voted against or abstained in any of the motions, go to the voting desks at the end of the room. And when we have Mr. Chairman will close the AGM. So to the shareholders who do not want expectation.
And just to finish, I would like to thank on my behalf and on behalf of the entire Board of Directors, the trust that Cascabank, throughout 2018, has had different initiatives with the goal of promoting transparency In proximity with the shareholders. As the 17 corporate events that have, for the first time, arrived in store branches of CasaBank, 23 cultural events and leisure events where we had the trust of our shareholders. This year, we have trained Through the Aula program, over 1600 shareholders on diverse matters and subjects. With this goal, we have also started a new women's program to bring the financial culture to all our shareholders. And in this effort, we have launched a new educational comic to explain the younger shareholders the operation of the stock market.
CashStar Bank also gets closer to the shareholders through the traditional and regular channels and through our virtual office for shareholders from the Shareholder Information Service. We follow the latest news on the company through our monthly newsletter, the magazine and our day monthly report and our Twitter channel. In CasaBank, we'll continue working to offer the best shareholder experience from responsibility, transparency and proximity. Thank you for your trust. So we already have the voting.
Mr. Shareholders. If you have no inconvenience, you know that we are forced to publish in our website detailed results of the voting on the 5 subsequent days to the AGM, both in favor, votes against and abstentions. So we will just provide the results of the approval. So item 1 on the agenda has been approved with 99 point 39% votes in favor of the 2nd item, 99.50 percent 3rd item, 99.48 percent 4th item, 99.76 percent.
Item 5th, 1, 99.49 percent, 5.2%, 97.94% votes in VERA 5.3 with a 94.58, 54 with a 92.62 percent of its in fever, 5.5%, 80.01% of votes in favor, 0.5.6%
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY
REPRESENTATIVE:] With 83.18 percent of votes in favor. 0.5 point 98.40 percent of votes in favor item 6, 99.61 percent of votes in favor item 7 with 90 7.18 percent of votes in favor item 8 with 98.30 percent of votes in favor for item 9 with 99.48 percent of votes in favor item 10 with 99.36 percent of votes in favor item 11 with 99.93 percent of votes in favor item 12 with 92.93 percent of votes in favor. So by virtue of the detailed In accordance with these results, dear shareholders, we have finished the examination and assessment of the proposals by the Board of Directors. And we close the annual shareholders meeting, and we will have the notary public. I'm giving the final closure.
Thank you very much.