Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. Welcome on my own behalf and on behalf of the Board of Directors. Welcome to our general shareholder meeting in CaixaBank, held at Palacio de Congresos in Valencia. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to those of you attending in the meeting room, those attending remotely, and those following it on streaming on the internet, as per our bylaws and internal regulation. The Board has also agreed to make it possible for remote attendees to be here real-time, thus allowing shareholders to effectively exercise their rights remotely based on the instructions given in the call for meeting. Shareholders were also enabled and allowed to exercise their voting and other rights remotely before the actual meeting, as informed.
Please note that Buró Veritas has audited this general meeting as a sustainable event in alignment with sustainable development goals, as you would be able to check in the document published on our website for the Shareholder Meeting 2025 on our corporate website. This meeting has been summoned with a view to approving yearly accounts for 2024 and any other remaining agreements proposed as per the agenda. The Secretary will report on all the publication data, and later he will report on attendance data.
Good morning, dear shareholders. Today's call for this meeting was published in February on the website of the relevant authorities of Spain, and on our corporate website, and on the general gazette of the company's register. Ever since, all data, all information, the agenda for the day, all of it is published on the website.
Similarly, shareholders were given access to check all the paperwork in our headquarters. Those attending the meeting are now informed that you will find QR codes and access codes that will allow you to gain access to all information about this meeting on the corporate website directly. Should you require a paper copy, a hard copy, you would be able to get one too. I would like to say that those attending face-to-face and remotely will have an opportunity to intervene and request for them to participate at any given time. They are allowed to do so. The shareholders present in the room could go and report at the desk at the back of the room and ask for a possibility to participate. You would be asked for your details, and you will be allowed to intervene.
If you want your intervention to be kept in the minutes, you will have to explicitly say so and submit your writings at the reception desk so that the notary public can verify everything. Similarly, I would like to remind all shareholders that the time they are allocated is five minutes, as per our regulations. As announced in the call, the meeting is broadcast on our website, on our corporate website, so your images might potentially be captured by streaming devices and recording equipment. If you do not want your images to be broadcast, you need to say so in advance so that you will not be recorded and publicly broadcast. If any of the attendees require any accessibility aids, please let us know, and you will be handed out a microphone should it be necessary.
Similarly, shareholders attending the meeting remotely, if they have not yet submitted their request, please do so now using the corresponding form on the digital platform until the participation session and round is closed. Similarly, for remote participants, and based on the instructions published on our website, any written intervention is limited to a number of characters. We thought this limitation is enough for participants to express their claims or complaints, which would be equivalent to the time given to those attendees present in the room. Those attendees being present on the platform, should they want their intervention to be recorded and in the minutes, please explicitly say so in the form. All participants face-to-face and remotely, their requests will be answered now or within a deadline of seven days. Positive voting will be those by all participants in the room or remotely, not expressing a vote against or abstention.
Shareholders or shareholder representatives present in the room or remotely who want to put a complaint against the agenda for the day, please go to the reception desk and express so for your votes to be computed. You may participate until the description of proposals is closed. We ask shareholders and remote shareholders willing to vote on proposals or not yet have voted, please use the telematic platform for voting until the time elapses. After reading the proposal summaries and once the description of the voting has been described, the President will proceed to compute the number of favorable votes to see if that number has been reached, this not being in detriment with other aspects to be expressed in the meetings and confirmed by the notary public. Those shareholders are duly credited and duly represented.
Those who have already registered as participants remotely, should they leave before the meeting is over, please express so for your positive votes not to be computed as positive. Please use the necessary tools and aids on the website. Let me remind you that once you have explicitly expressed your will, it will not be possible for you to register again. Before we read attendance data, should systems shut down, should communications fail, the meeting would be adjourned until it could be technically possible to resume it. This would be publicized on the website or on the streaming platform, and obviously, information would be given about the potential shutdown of systems. Based on the latest temporary data we have been recently given, the attendance is as follows concerning shareholders present online, shareholders and representatives in the room, and shareholders who delegated their voting rights before the meeting.
Based on the latest data, the results are 13,900 shareholders present who have EUR 7,174 million and also 2,308 million shares, which is 32.84% of the capital. In total, the number of shareholders is 17,183 attendants who are shareholders of the shares that I mentioned earlier, which account for 82% and 6% of our capital, our shareholder capital. Based on the existing quorum, we declare the general meeting to be duly constituted in the second call as based on our charter, the regulations, and also based on company law. This is not in detriment of final data, which will be read later on and published on our website within five days, which will fully cover the number of attendees and also be proven and confirmed by the notary public.
Let me inform you that this meeting is presided over by myself as the President of the Board and Mr. Óscar Calderón de Oya, who is the Secretary of the Board, who will act as the President and Secretary of the shareholders' meeting. Similarl`y, we have other members in this meeting, the remaining directors of the company who are here attending the meeting, except for Mr. Losha, who was in Valencia this morning but unfortunately has not been able to attend for personal reasons. The Vice Secretary of the Board of Directors is also present, as reflected in the call for the meeting and also in line with commercial law. By laws, the Board of Directors requested the presence of a notary public who will take the minutes of the meeting. In this room, we have a notary from Valencia, Alfonso Maldonado Rubio. I will now give him the floor. Mr. Maldonado?
In compliance with commercial law regulations, I now ask shareholders, do you have any objections or protests against the valid constitution of the meeting, the number of shareholders, and the capital they represent? Should there be a shareholder present remotely who wants to express their issues or objections concerning the list of attendees, please send me an email to this address, lista.asistentes.junta@caixabank. It will so be reflected in the minutes. If you are present in the room, you can so declare by referring to the desk, which is signaled as notary public at the back of the room.
Thank you, Mr. Notary Public. Let me now submit and present the report. [Foreign language] Good morning again, dear shareholders. First of all, I wanted to say thank you again for your attendance to this shareholders' meeting. After becoming the president of CaixaBank on the 1st of January, it's a real honor to be chairing this shareholder meeting. I've been for many years in CaixaBank, and it's part of my life. Right now, I would like to recognize the excellent work of José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, the former president. He was a real leader. He was committed, and he had a vision that allowed us to reach the goals of our strategic plan. In the same way, I would like to say thank you to all the board members that are leaving us today because their contribution has been crucial for CaixaBank. All of them have been key elements for us to be successful in the biggest merger of the banking industry in Spain. Talking to you today is a privilege and also a responsibility. I'm really looking forward and full of respect.
General share meeting holder is the most important act for an entity. Now we are going to talk to you about the main topics for CaixaBank. To take into account all the shareholders for making decisions is very important, and I'm very proud because we are going to have more and more participants this year. This year, we have increased the participation with a record number, which is almost the triple of last year. In the following minutes, I would like to give you my vision of the entity. First of all, I would like to remind you of our commitment and our values, which have always been the same along all those years. As well, we would like to see the balance of 2024 and of the strategic plan that we have just finished.
I will finish just looking forward to the new challenges that will be faced by our new strategic plan. After my presentation, the CEO will analyze both the keys of our year 2024 and the new strategic plan. Specifically here in Valencia today, I would like to show you my commitment to the legacy of our institution and the vision for the future we want to build together. CaixaBank is not just one more entity. It's an entity which has been working for more than hundreds of years, just responding to all the needs of society. We have some values, and we have a transformation journey which has been incredible. CaixaBank began in 1904, and we were trying to meet the needs of our society. We wanted to offer a fair retirement for all of our citizens. We are celebrating more than 120 years of the first customer.
Here you can see it on the slide. This was a product that was showing what we wanted to do. This vital brand was showing the commitment in the long term with our customers. Along all these years, our entity has witnessed and also has been a participant in many historical challenges. In all those milestones, we have always met our commitments with society. We have been together with our customers. This commitment is clear in CaixaBank because CaixaBank is a company which is well acknowledged both in our country and abroad. This is the excellent journey we want to walk to be faithful to our values and our mission to improve the financial well-being of people and to support the progress of the whole society. CaixaBank today is the result of many, many relevant entities together in our banking industry.
We are strong because we have taken all these entities and working together. It is a privilege for me to be receiving this responsibility and to face the future. Let me remind you the values of our company: quality, trust, and social commitment. Everyone who's part of CaixaBank knows that these values have a meaning. They are part of what we do every day, and we know that they have to be in everything we do. Being close to our customers, listening to them, is the way in which we can be pioneers designing our services and products. Working hand in hand with our customers makes us face the different challenges in innovation. Our leadership depends on the trust we have from our clients. We are very proud because we have more than 20 million clients in Spain and Portugal, and we can offer them a specialized offer.
In Spain, our penetration is higher than 40% in people over 65. Most of our individual customers are digitals already, and we have 500,000 clients from Agro Bank. All of them have unique features, and we have to work for all of them. We are also very proud to be the leadership company in insurance and in solutions for financing, savings, and investing. We also have an omnichannel platform, which is really good, and we have many offices and ATMs that reach 92% of the Spanish population. CaixaBank is today a key actor in our economy. It's one of the main companies in Spain. We play a fundamental role in our industry and in the society, and our contribution is meaningful. We are contributing to the GDP in 1.8%. We contribute to the creation of quality jobs.
We have more than 47,000 people in our staff, and we are supporting growth with our funding. In 2024, funding for companies reaches more than EUR 45,000 million, most of them for SMEs. With microcredit, we have been supporting financially the creation of more than 9,000 new businesses and many more job positions. Our commitment is to invest in the creation of shared value for everyone, with a different way of making our bank function. Last year, we closed the strategic plan 2022-2024, in which we have some key lines like it was growth of activity, growth of profitability, and balance sheet strength. All in all, we wanted to achieve these finance goals that would allow us to retribute our share capital for our shareholders. That's the mean for all of you. Our strategic plan as well was including the merger with Bankia.
We can say that they are already part of our DNA, and all the staff that were coming from Bankia are already working for us and working for the strength of CaixaBank. I'm so proud to have them on our side. Closing this strategic plan, our figures show that we have done very well. We have fulfilled the goals we had, and the result is more than EUR 5,700 million. That is an increase of 20.2% compared to 2023. This result has been possible because we understand the needs of our customers. We have a great management of risk and our solidity in our balance, and the rating agencies have recognized this. With all the results we have and the solid capital share that we have, we want to make a proposal: the distribution of our gross dividend of EUR 0.4342. That's EUR 0.4352. Sorry, that's more than last year.
All in all, in 2024, it was EUR 3,096 million. Sorry. If we take into account the results of 2024, in which we pay EUR 14.88 per action, that means a gross EUR 28.64 per share, and this will be paid on the 24th of April 2025, as per the proposal of the board, if you, dear shareholders, decide to approve it. With this second payment, the total remuneration for the shareholder in 2024 will be 53.05% of the net consolidated profits. This is a percentage in cash from 50%-60% of the net consolidated profit, as it was approved last year. All in all, we have been able to maintain the right retribution for our shareholders during the last three years, with a standard dividend of EUR 7,700 million. 30% of this quantity is for Fundación La Caixa.
As you know, La Caixa decided to change their head offices, and we respect this decision. Regarding CaixaBank, in 2017, we changed our main offices to Valencia because we thought that that would be the best thing to do for our customers and shareholders. With the merger with Bankia in 2021, we made the decision for the central offices to be here in Valencia, and there are two main offices, one in Madrid and one in Barcelona. We are very proud to be the reference banking here in the Valencian region and in many other regions of Spain. Let me please now tell you about the evolution of our shares. The market has talked about our very good performance last year.
Yesterday, the last year, we closed at EUR 5,236, which is an increase of value of 40% of 40% that it can be compared with the IBEX 35 that has an increase of 14.8%. Profitability per dividend was 10.3% last year. If we take into account our strategic plan, the total profitability is more than 170% of the shareholder return, as Bloomberg said. 70% in every stock band and 51% for IBEX 55. We can say that we are facing the future from a strength position and acting with the commitment for the general welfare of society. While the recent catastrophe, the DANA, has reminded us that the climate challenge we are facing, being committed to the social welfare, we have proven that we are next to those who were affected. We respond immediately. We were the first banking entity that we have mobile offices there.
We also made some payments in advance to help people to buy new houses, cars, and for the business, and of course, for the people. We have many initiatives during these months, and they were focused on boosting and supporting economic activity. All in all, looking for the best situation possible, we all work together, and we wanted to do an extra donation in this shareholder meeting. Every participation or every vote in this general shareholders' meeting is a EUR 5 donation for the Red Cross for the people affected by the DANA, by the storms. Thank you very much to you all for your contribution. Now, if you would please let us know how we face the future with our new strategic plan.
The cycle ahead is full of challenges, and following our 2024 closing, our country was again surprising with indicators above those of Europe. Spain is on the lead of growth in the Eurozone. Spain's dynamics were leveraged by the growth in population based on immigration, the nice development of foreign trade, the participation of tourism, the reactivation of family consumption, and a better purchasing power based on inflation correlation and the labor market. Inflation was about 2.8% versus 3.5% the previous year, and the saving rate of families in Spain continues to be high. The European Central Bank continued the flexible monetary possible and reduced interest rates in 2024. Therefore, Euribor was on the wane. Financial markets saw varying interest rates seeing important value added. In 2025, the scenario foreseen by analysts is for Spain and Portugal to continue growing in a sustained way, Spain growing above the European average. Based on our forecast by Eurobank Research, we believe our domestic gross product will grow by 2%.
The European Central Bank also reviewed our growth rate in 0.9% additionally, and in March, interest rates were reduced again, though the institution did not express a sound decision based on political instability. In April, it is clear that uncertainty has grown. Uncertainty abounds, but it is yet early to quantify the consequences of tariffs movements. Fortunately, the Spanish economy is not that exposed to that shock. Without a doubt, it brings significant challenges to the world's economy. We are faced with a very complex and certain situation, which does affect Europe in particular. In the coming years, a lot would be at stake in Europe. Electoral cycles in 2024 and 2025 have brought out a different map, one which is very different from the map in previous years. We can see that already the new map of the world undergoes changing all the time, and it is not predictable.
Faced with that geopolitical scenario, polarization seems to be stronger with the advance of extreme movements. With conflict being settled in Europe and more and more complicated international relationships, the Middle East, the U.S., and China with the European Union, and of course, Russia and Europe. Without a doubt, Europe's position and role will have to take into account the new role of the United States in Europe. We are faced with new scenarios concerning defense and defense expenditure, and of course, protectionism measures which will have unpredictable consequences. Apart from that, please note that we need to understand other underlying trends that will shape our near future: new population trends, technology, digitization, energy transition. Amidst that scenario, it is key for Europe to be more relevant. Firm measures are urgent, are pressing. We cannot be stagnant or stopped.
We need to promote greater competitiveness on the basis of European industrial policies. Productivity needs to be enhanced, otherwise, the welfare model might be jeopardized. Simplification of laws and regulation and technology being more effective are crucial goals. Agreement has been reached about the growing complexity of laws in Europe, in particular the regulatory load upon the financial sector. The world moves very quickly. CaixaBank moves very quickly too. We have a strategic plan in place based on three strategic pillars: growth to secure our profitability and consolidate our leadership based on a differential value proposal; transformation to ensure future leadership in a complex setting by investing in technology. All of that based on our commitment to be positioned in a responsible way as regards sustainability. CaixaBank wants to preserve their spirit by being close to people for the economy and for society to be more sustainable.
It is yet too soon to rightly assess effects of recent developments, but we are confident that if we get to boost these three strategic lines, we will be positioned where we want to stand, making the future of banking real and being closer to citizens. This means we need to be attentive to our customers' everyday life, investing in their proposals, in their initiatives, in their business, and by offering solutions which are financially sound, taking into account the type of customer and their classification. Our commitment to be present in the rural world, offering each customer the attention they deserve at all times. For instance, in Spain, we have more than 4 million people who are senior citizens, and we are a reference bank with them. Since 2022, we have priority for them, but we want to take a step forward.
We will train thousands of employees for them to carefully help senior citizens, and we will also have digital proposals for the inclusion of younger clients. Concerning other vulnerable groups, we are proud to rely on Micro Bank, and we also offer insurance solutions. Similarly, financial education is key to society. For instance, our program classroom Aula to train investors, and from Dualitha, we support vocational education by encouraging employability with younger people. To finish with, I would like to tell you that I do trust that this new cycle, 2025, for CaixaBank is the beginning of a great era. First of all, rest assured you can rely on the board who will make their best in making our institution absolutely reliable, and we so propose a new constitution for the board. You can rely on me. You can count on me.
I will do my best to get these goals to come true, the goals in the strategic plan. The plan gathers our commitment to allocate cash benefits based on this layout. We will include dividends each year. Particularly for 2025, the Board of Directors have announced a dividend policy which allocates between 60%-50% with two cash payments. Then another payment between 30%-40% of our consolidated benefits for the first semester in 2025 to be paid for in November 2025, and a complimentary dividend subject to your approval by all of you shareholders in next year's general meeting. Adequate dividends are a priority to the Board. I would like to finish my speech by referring to those who work for CaixaBank.
We rely on exceptional professionals who are best in class, who are committed to our new roadmap for our new strategic cycle. On behalf of this great team, on behalf of the board, I would like to say thank you to our customers for trusting us, for choosing us day after day. My gratitude is in order for your trust in us. Next, our CEO will explain in detail the results for 2024 and the new strategic plan 2025-2027. Thank you very much.
I would like to give the floor to Mr. Gortázar, our Managing Director.
Dear President, dear members of the board, dear shareholders, good morning. Good morning to all of you. I am ever so happy to be back in Valencia in this yearly appointment which allows us to share our evolution and developments in our mutual commitment. As advanced by our President, 2024 has been a satisfactory year for CaixaBank in a demanding setting, in a competitive setting. We proved we are a sound company, we have values, and we are absolutely professional. Our team is highly professional. This has been reflected in the numbers and figures that we will show next, but also by the brilliant actions taken by the staff faced with complex decisions. For instance, the disaster brought out by the DANA, the flooding. I would like to start my presentation by expressing in front of you my deep gratitude to all professionals in the group for their dedication, the efforts made not only this year, but in previous years. It has been key for CaixaBank to stand on its feet today and become a reference point in Spain and Portugal.
CaixaBan k is an institution for the service of people, a project built on the basis of trust, commitment, and values that are guiding values that make sense in all initiatives and actions. In the next few minutes, I will go through the main aspects of our commercial business and our results for 2024. I shall also refer to our company's strength. Finally, I will share with you some reflections for the future, some food for thought concerning our strategic plan 25-27. Since there are many Spanish-speaking shareholders present, I will now continue in Spanish. Let me begin with our commercial activity. In 2024, we had an increase in our credit portfolio with 2.2% growth. Credit growing relatively slowly in Spain, as has been the case for the past 14-15 years.
We can see the credit given to companies with an international component growing up to 15%, and also credit given to consumption with higher levels above 7%, and finally mortgages, which had followed in the past but has now become more steady, growing at about 1%, 5.5%, which is higher than before. Concerning our customers, our growth is considerable: 8.7%, EUR 685 million. Let me differentiate between investment funds, equity funds, pension schemes, and insurance, growing 11.7%, also supported by market trends, but with an increase which has almost doubled if compared to 2023, with net subscriptions. As for deposits, bank deposits, our growth has been also very considerable: 26%, which is in line with the saving rate in Spain, which has remained stable for the past 12 months in Spain, which has allowed us to have a greater market share.
Similarly, insurance has also been positive: traditional insurance, life insurance, for instance, health and automotive, car insurance, also with growth, as you can see, 11.7% coming from insurance policies, which really makes a difference with our competitors because other banks are not there at all by far, not even close to our situation. We have managed to grow our market share by 26.9% in insurance, which is remarkable because bear in mind we do not only compete with banks but also with insurers. BPI, our Portuguese colleagues, have done a brilliant job again one more year with a business growth amounting to more than 4% and results growing by 20%, more than EUR 500 million in Portugal with an efficiency rate of 37.5%. Bad debt levels are very low in Portugal, very good amongst Portuguese banks, which has been greatly rated by institutions.
Let's go now to the second part of my presentation, the financial strength, which is key right now because we are living in uncertain times with the geopolitic situation at global level. Our group is in a strong situation. First of all, default, default rate, default rate is historically low. It's even not comparable because the regulations are more and more strict each year. If you can see that we have reduced our default in more than EUR 280 million, and we are below the, much below the industry, as you can see, it's 3.3%. It is quite relevant to have this default rate success. Also regarding liquidity, we have EUR 170,723 million in liquid assets, which makes us very attractive in Europe. We also have the capacity to access the market in very favorable conditions.
For instance, we have EUR 7,428 million of emissions in 2024. We can increase our capacity when the market is attractive for us. Solvency levels are in our goal. We have a 12.2% rate, and here you can see that we have 219 basis points. This is generation of capital, and this is very attractive, and it allows us to pay dividends to our shareholders, those who are here with us today that will decide about these dividends today. This solvency and the default rate and all these different features have been appreciated by the four main agencies. You can see in the lower part of the display, you can see that there is this rating we have in the main rating companies.
As the President said already, we have been working on the repurchase of shares and that we can have attractive levels in our dividends and attractive levels of solvency at the same time above the legal regulations. Regarding results, there has been an increase in income, 11.5%, which is a very meaningful growth for a banking entity because there has been an improvement in activity and there has been a very positive impact on the interest rate in 2023 and 2024, as you well know. Of course, the well-management of all of our assets has been very successful. I was telling before regarding the activity and also the insurance, and this is all reflected in our results. Now, with these figures that you can see on the slide, all of them, there is an increase in which means an average of 11.5%.
This means that we are incentivizing our customers to be loyal to us and to work with us and to save commissions, and it's working very well, and it is the right thing for our customers and for our shareholders. Within the other income, of course, we have the bank tax, as you know, and so we've lost more than EUR 490 million in our results in 2024. The operational rate we have here, an efficiency rate 38.5%, minus 2.4 percentage points, and we have the operating margin 16.1%. As you can see, the average has been 7.4%. The efficiency rate is getting lower. You know, it's 38.5%. This ratio makes a relationship between income and expenses, and this level is really very relevant, and it's a reference for Europe and in Spain.
This was one of our goals that we have achieved, and it has to do with the management we are doing nowadays and as well on the decision of Bankia and CaixaBank for the merge that they decided. This allowed us to be more efficient, to be bigger, and to be more profitable. The risk, cost of risk is still low, and I told you before that the default ratio is going down, so this is improving as well. The risk cost is 0.27%, and this allows us to cover the dubious loans with lots of provisions. Then the last line, as a consequence of everything I've been talking to you, the result for 2024 is EUR 5,787 million, a dividend EUR 3.096.
The ROTE, as you can see on the screen, and as the President mentioned before, is 19.1%, and it gives us a dividend of more than EUR 3,000 million for 2024. We are very proud of these figures, and here you can see we had the goals, and you can see that we have achieved all of them, and we have gone even beyond them. With all the objectives we had from the strategic plan, as you can see, we are way, way above them. The market has helped us, of course, but we have also made a great effort, and this means that we are so happy and proud to have fulfilled the goals of our strategic plan, and we begin with a new strategic plan in a very strong and positive position.
I wanted to tell you to mention this very briefly, which is a strategic plan from 2025 to 2027. We began since November. We want to reinforce our activity in three pillars, which are growth, transformation, and to be faithful to our essence. Those are the three main pillars of this strategic plan. These are the main ones. There are many others, but these are the main ones. We are going to take into account loans both for customers within the Mallards and outside. We want to have a growth of more than 4%. 2024 has been very good. 2025 is beginning very well. We really are confident, and we think that we will be able to achieve these levels, which are aligned with the economy evolution, and that's why we will still have so many initiatives.
Some of them you will see, you can see on the slide. Secondly, let's talk about transformation. Transformation is quite complex because we want to have the platform, the network, the people. We have already carried out this transformation, and we did it when we merged with Bankia, between CaixaBank and Bankia. We will have to use this platform and to optimize what this platform and our managers and our staff can do to offer even more services to our customers. Technology will be on our side. We will have our offices in all the cities and towns we are present currently. We have more than 3,800 offices, and we are redesigning the digital channels, our website, and we also want to improve our smartphone presence. We are investing in technology more than EUR 5,000 million. This has shown results, and also we are also hiring young talent.
We want to hire 3,000 people who are younger than 35 years old, and we are doing that, and I think this is a very good thing for our entity. We want to be loyal to our essence. We want to keep it. Regarding corporate social responsibility, we want to work as you see. We have been doing that, and we want to move forward. We are not going to leave behind any town or any municipality. We want to keep our offices where they are. We are one of the more meaningful entities because we do not want to get rid of our offices in the small towns, and we want to offer our services especially to our senior customers. Today we are working, and we have offices in 3,600 municipalities, and we want to be there. We have different initiatives.
For instance, there's quite one, which is well known, is Ofimóviles, which is mobile offices that go from one place to another to offer the services. Yes, we want to help to create jobs. We think that we will have 150,000 people in our staff. This ambitious plan will help us to have some sustainable levels, which are quite reasonable, which should be above 15% per year. This will help us to maintain our activity. As the President mentioned before, this will allow us to have a dividend policy, which will be very attractive for all of us. At the beginning of my presentation, I was telling you that we are an institution that we want to serve people. La Caixa was created with social commitment, and at the end, I would like to insist on this idea.
We are here to serve the people, and we are going to work to keep CaixaBank being a real reference in the social sphere and also to be profitable for our shareholders. I want to say thank you to the board for the leadership, for their commitment to the managers, to everyone, but especially to all the members of the board, Eva Castillo, José Serena, José Campo, and Joaquín Ayuso, who are finishing today the mandate. They, for the last years, have played a fundamental role in the merger of CaixaBank and Bankia. Their knowledge, their experience, their common sense has made it very easy for us to work and has created the strength that we can see in our group, which is one of the best of the last decades.
I want to remind you as well, as the President said, I want to say thank you to our former President, one of the great bankers of the last decades. It's been a privilege working with him. I've learned so much from him. I am privileged now to go on working with a President like Tomás Muñoz, who really knows our financial industry. He has been working almost for 40 years in our group. I have seen him working many times. He's a great professional, a great person, and he's so valued. Let me give you just an example. We can see his successes, and it's the leadership we have right now in our insurance department, which is a reference in our industry, not only in Spain but in Europe. Of course, he's been doing this for many decades.
Yes, he is giving us a group which is extraordinary, honestly. Tomás impersonates the values of this company. We are so proud of these values, and I'm sure that it will be a guidance in the future. Last but not least, I want to say thank you to our staff, our people who have allowed us to have these results. These people have known how to work during the worst financial crisis of the last 80 years, creating the leader CaixaBank that we have in our market that can face the new challenges of the geopolitical situation in the world. We are facing this crisis being trustful and knowing that we are working for the families, society, institutions, and companies, all in all for the whole of society, as we have always done.
Dear shareholders, I have to tell you that not one euro of your EUR 5,700 million profits is just for free. It's the effort of more than 46,000 employees that have worked very, very hard in order to achieve these results and to make CaixaBank a reference in our market, not only because of the results, but also because of the service they are offering to the customers, being loyal to our origins. Their work is contributing to the social commitment of La Caixa, which is the biggest social institution in Europe, and we are very proud of it. Thank you very much for everything.
Thank you, Gonzalo, for your words. I shall now share with you some information on corporate governance based on recommendation number three on listed companies passed by the National Stock Market. It is now time to share the most relevant aspects. In this regard, as informed by the company on the 30th of October 2024, Mr. José Ignacio Goirigolzarri submitted his resignation, which was effective as of 1st of January 2025. As informed, the Board of Directors considers his management to be extremely positive. Let me make the most of this opportunity to say thank you to him again. Since the 1st of January, the presidency of the board and the company is non-executive, in line with recommendations by the European Supervisor. Similarly, we inform that the Board of Directors held on March the 27th, 2025, following a report by the Appointments and Sustainability Commission, agreed to appoint Ms. Amparo Moraleda Martínez, Vice President of the Board of Directors. She had already been considered anyway, and now I would like to present proposals to be approved by this meeting, which are in line with our commitment to that effect.
We propose three members of the board to be re-elected, particularly an independent director, a dominical director, and a director adscribed as external. We also propose for five new members to be appointed, three of them being independent, one being dominical, and one adscribed to external directors. As for changes in the composition of the Board of Directors, the changes we propose are intended, on the one hand, to cover the position which is now vacant following the resignation by Mr. José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, and to cover the vacant positions, the vacancies, which are the result of non-renewing Joaquín Ayuso García, Francisco Javier Campo, and Eva Castillo's position as of the end of this meeting. Likewise, the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. José Serena, Monsieur, shall also be covered as he's close to his mandate termination.
I would like to say thank you to all of them for their professional dedication. In line with the best governance practice, the Board of Directors will continue being formed by 60% of independent directors, this representing the vast majority of the members of the board. Specialized commissions in the board also have a majority of independent directors. Besides, the board also relies on the coordinator independent figure. Knowledge and experience abounds in the board as a whole, director profiles being absolutely professional. With this new constitution, we include professionals who are deeply experienced in technological innovation, banking, and sustainable business. As far as equal opportunities are concerned, the percentage of female directors will be kept, with the approval of such proposals at 40% in 2020.
We already fulfill the 40% goal as recommended by the Good Governance Code and Organic Act 224 for equal opportunity representation and a balanced presence of both men and women. The Appointments and Sustainability Commission, the Remuneration Commission, and the Risk Commission are presided over by independent female directors. Similarly, let me note that the Board of Directors will continue boosting quality and efficiency in their operation and their commissions with measures intended to ensure ongoing improvement in decision-making in the company, which will also be applicable to subsidiaries. The board I preside over is also willing to strengthen relationships with our shareholders. To that end, let me remind you that CaixaBank was a pioneer in having a consultative committee of shareholders. Finally, let me remind you that CaixaBank, since January 2022, was credited with the Ainhoor[guess] top rating, G++.
To finish with, I would like to say I am extremely committed, and so are the members of the Board, with CaixaBank being acknowledged as a reference entity in corporate governance. This is key to CaixaBank and their Board of Directors. Concerning good governance recommendations and based on the Good Governance Code, next, the Secretary will proceed to explain the current monitoring and application of recommendations in good governance in CaixaBank. The yearly report for governance 2024, which was also circulated with CNMV in February 2025, covers the level of monitoring of recommendations in the Good Governance Code. Declaring and stating that 59 recommendations are totally complied with, 4 are partially fulfilled, and 1 is not applicable to the company in such a way that in 2024, no recommendations applicable to the company are breached. The floor goes to the Secretary, who will now give you further details on compliance of recommendations in the code.
As said by the President, out of the 64 recommendations for governance in 2024, CaixaBank fully complies with more than 92% of recommendations, 4 of them being partially fulfilled and 1 not being applicable. As for those recommendations that were complied with partially, recommendation 5 on exercising shareholding issuance duties, this recommendation is partially fulfilled because, on the one hand, we reach the maximum for a capital increase, and on the other hand, the limit, the capping in Article 511 of the Capital Corporate Act is not applicable to this type of issuance in credit organizations. Concerning recommendation 10, it is partially fulfilled because the Board of Directors in CaixaBank has a different voting system as regards proposals by the board or shareholders.
With this in mind, we try to avoid difficulties in computing votes by shareholders and so avoid incompatibilities with proposals other than those done by the Board. The company declared to partially fulfill recommendation 27. Those boards delegating the vote delegate such delegations may apply their specific instructions. In this regard, the Board of Directors values as a good practice of governance the freedom to do their own delegation with or without specific instructions, regardless of the director being chosen for delegation. Concerning recommendation 64, the company declared to partially fulfill it due to payment to be payment or extinguished. Concerning the contract of the President and the Managing Director, provided they do not exceed two years, having said so, it also foresees the amounts not previously consolidated from long-term savings systems.
Finally, recommendation 2 in the code is not applicable to our company because CaixaBank is not a company controlled by another organization or entity, whether listed or not. In any case, the Board of Directors will continue boosting good governance practices, as reported previously and as will be reported to shareholders.
Next, the Secretary will read the final quorum.
At this moment in time, the quorum is as follows, notwithstanding potential adjustment at the end of the remote meeting: 14,068 attendees representing 3,021,000 shares and 62,662 shareholders represented with EUR 260,000 million, disaccounting for 32%. In total, the number of shareholders is 76,020, who hold the total of shares mentioned earlier, accounting for 82.79% of our corporate capital. The total final quorum will be published in the corporate website within five days upon completion of our meeting.
In view of this final attendance data, we confirm the validity of our general meeting. I will now give the floor to the notary public.
In compliance with regulations in commercial law, I ask you again if you have objections or complaints against the number of attendees and the capital they represent. Let me remind you that any remote shareholders who want to object to the validity of this meeting, they need to do so in writing by sending an email to the address I mentioned earlier, including their protests, and for it to be covered in the meetings. Those in the room can do so by coming to the desk with the sign "Notary Public" at the back of the room. Now, you should be able to intervene as per the instructions given by the Secretary.
If you want your intervention to be in the minutes, you need to so express explicitly. Otherwise, you will have to submit your intervention in writing at the end of the meeting. We therefore open the intervention round. I would like to give the floor to the Secretary.
As said by the President, it is now time for interventions. We will call all those present in the room. Having asked to intervene, they can go to the mics, present to the microphones in the room. Similarly, interventions already covered on the platform will be read out. Those present in the room not willing for their image to be broadcast or publicized, please let us know. Please note that the moment your interventions are received or if your interventions should not be covered based on applicable regulations information, the answer will be given within seven days after the meeting. To try to make it flexible, to try to make our meeting flexible, we will call you in pairs so that the second person can be ready. Okay, the floor goes to Mr. Pedro Conesa Arroyo, who will be followed by Mr. César Girón Fernández.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. First of all, as you said before, I would like for my intervention to be on the minutes. To that effect, I've left a literal copy of what I'm going to read. Let me begin. My name is Pedro Conesa Arroyo. I have 1,005 shares. My code for action is 8960865. First of all, I just wanted to show my congratulations to all the board because of all the resources regarding solvency resources and dividends. I am an economist and I am a former worker of Bankaixa and Bankia for more than 45 years.
I had been working there. My intervention is due to because I want to claim for the retired people working in Bankia the two passive accounts for Bankia, the same as it is done in Caixa and Bankia. I am part of a society called Jubileros with more than 1,000 members, and we already asked for this last year. After three months, we did not receive a reply from him, but from the legal advisors saying that they are not granting us this because this was not included in the agreements done during the merger between Bankia and CaixaBank. We were outraged when we received that letter because there are many people here in our association who have been lawyers when they were working, and now they are retired, and they said that really we deserve better.
That's why I'm here today, because I want to say to all the board members that with these extremely qualified people, I just want to inform you about this matter, which is important in quality. I do not doubt that during the merger with Bankia, it was such a huge workload, so maybe this topic was not pertinent back then, but this topic that could not be solved back then, it can be done right now. With Mr. Gortázar and his intervention published in The Economist in 2023, he said the entity has big opportunities and we cannot waste them. We have opportunities to grow, to reinforce our role in society, and to create CaixaBank the best possible, to make it the best possible place to work. I wonder, when your workers are retired, can they find two kinds of retired people from this entity?
It doesn't seem reasonable because the economic cost of this measure is practically zero. This is granted because we have some economists that are working with us and made lots of studies in the cost-benefits of this measure, and they had made some assessment calculations and said that the cost, that it's almost zero. If we look at the competition and what they are doing in Spain, there's no difference in retired people in the rest of bank and finance institutions, and many of these companies already have some mergers with them too. We have the strategic protocol to improve the social cohesion for banking, and this has been issued by the Spanish Confederation of Banking Associations, the CECA as well, and that says these are measures to support the activity of retired professionals. I cannot read it because I don't have the time here.
Also, in the interview to the member of the committee of the bank in 2023 in Aedipo, he said about the staff during the merger with Bankia and CaixaBank. I cannot read it here because I do not have the time, but last but not least, in the wonderful memory of staff in 2023, on page they want to involve some seniors in our activities to take advantage of the experience of this collective as an ambassador of our brand, and this would be very good for the reputation of our brand. Let me read because this is key, which is the reputation. I am sure that you know this word. You know that it is difficult to have, and sometimes you might easily lose it. It is relevant because many of our colleagues, they are not talking well about this bank. Many of them have been working lots of time for many years with us, and they have very good connections.
Mr. López, Mr. Conesa, excuse me, we don't have much time.
Excuse me, there's only one line left. I am against this attitude, but this is the reality, and they said that they have been working very hard for many years, and now they are discriminated because there are two kinds of retired people from Bankia. I have many more to say, but I don't have time. Mr. President, Mr. Tomás, please, you can understand it. Please do give us a solution because it has a very good solution for both of us.
Last but not least, regarding the shareholders, I can understand that you have my personal data as a shareholder of the bank, and I authorize you for the reply, and I hope it will be positive to be sent to us. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. Conesa. There are many interactions. Sorry, because we have to be watchful of the time limit. Don César Girón Fernández has the floor, and then Don Fernando Martín Urrutia.
Good morning, everyone. Before beginning, I want my intervention to be in the minutes. We come here to represent ADICAE and the small savers of CaixaBank, who have delegated their votes to be represented in this general shareholder meeting. From ADICAE, we have been fighting for the sustainable saving products.
As per the European authorities in February 2024, funds linked to sustainable funds have no meaningful differences with the traditional funds regarding its real impact. We wonder, are the European regulators wrong, or is CaixaBank not doing it right? Also, we have some activities that the banking institution is doing, some activities which are not good for the environment, and they are investing in weapons. In 2024, CaixaBank paid EUR 493 million of an extraordinary tax. Let me remind you that the society's tax for banking is 15%, while the rest of the companies pay 25%. Instead of opposing this extraordinary revenue tax, they should recognize the public money that was used to recover them. We want also to insist from ADICAE that we are going to defend the small shareholders, the consumers, and we will fight for transparency in the banking industry. We trust that CaixaBank will work in a transparent way and will contribute to the economic justice of the country.
Thank you very much, Mr. Girón. The floor is from Don Fernando Martín Urrutia, and then Mrs. Josefina Cortés Jané.
Good morning, everyone. Before beginning, I would like to have my intervention literally in the minutes. We come here representing ADICAE, the association for banking and insurances. We've been working for more than 36 years. We are representing ADICAE and small shareholders and clients that have offered us the votes to be represented in this shareholder. I'm the vice president of ADICAE in the Valencian region, and I'm also a member of the national board. CaixaBank again shows profits, good profits, more than EUR 5,700 million, with an increase of more than 20% compared to 2023. We are very happy about that.
This success has been possible because of the good interest rate situation, and so we have lots more of revenues. It is clear that this extraordinary profitability for the banking sector is decreasing. This monetary policy, which is working so well for the loans and mortgages, has not been so good for consumers. Consumers are not having an interest rate in the deposits, and we should change that. Also, commissions that are quite high, even if the customers are not liking this at all. It is the entity with more claims at the Bank of Spain, with more claims there are. The improvement of the service is not a reality, unfortunately.
From ADICAE, we are criticizing that this high interest rate has been really translated for loans and mortgages, but it's not benefiting the customers regarding remunerating their deposits, which is quite relevant because CaixaBank is both workers and customers. We are very happy to hear that you are offering such good dividends, but we wonder how is CaixaBank going to sustain this profitability when margins are being really diminishing with the new regulations and the increasing costs. On the other hand, CaixaBank is not giving an answer to all the claims they have regarding, for instance, loans, mortgages, or finance products. Let me highlight three of them. For instance, mortgage formalization expenses, despite the ruling of the European Court, and then also the retroactivity of these special payments for the mortgages that they were doing, and they are not paying before 2013, revolving cards with abusive interest rates.
The entity is still trading in these products, and they are not being transparent. It is not acceptable in 2025 that you are still doing this. We insist for CaixaBank to really compensate those that were affected and to comply with what they are saying all the time. They are saying that they are committed to the customers, to the society, and they should stop these abusive practices. You should comply with what the court has told you, and you should improve the interest rate of the deposits. Just to say that from ADICAE, we will fight for consumers, small shareholders, and the transparency of the banking industry. We really hope that CaixaBank is going to work better for customers and workers, and we will contribute to the economy in our country. I've been here for many years, and I'm still waiting to see a result of the claims we have been doing during these years. Thank you.
[Foreign language]
Good morning, everyone. I'm Josefina Cortés, and now I'm retired, and I'm a shareholder of CaixaBank since its foundation. I've been working for many years in different NGOs like the Bank of Products, which is not the food one, Aleya Per Cuidador, and especially with the Foundation of Sor Lucía Caram. I'm also a voluntary of CaixaBank, of Fundación La Caixa. I'm very proud that right now there are hundreds of volunteers, and we have created a network helping society.
That's why I want to thank CaixaBank and Fundación La Caixa for the support, because they have helped thousands of people who needed it. CaixaBank is one of the best banks and most important banks in Europe, but the soul of CaixaBank is Fundación La Caixa. Thank you.
Gracias. Thank you. The floor goes to Don Antonio Valle Rincón, and then Antonio María Sáez de la Maza.
Hello, hello, good morning, good afternoon, Mr. President, Ms. Vice President, CEO, members of the board. Usually, my interventions seek to thank the efforts made by the employees of this great bank, from those employees sitting at a desk or those talking to customers daily anywhere in Spain and those who sit at the board of directors.
Thanks to their work and excellent management, they make it possible for results to be reached, like in this case, an amazing figure, EUR 5,787 million. This fulfilling the goals in Strategic Plan 2022-2024. When I was a young man, I thought that when time would come to retirement, I would have, you know, a flock of sheep for me to have milk or a flock of cows. And my wish came true because one of those cows is called CaixaBank, and the vets, each of the members in that board, see to it that my cow doesn't fall ill. Thank you. Thank you very much. My cow at some time was thinner. It is now a little bit fattier, but I'm always thankful for its milk. Since last year, with the new allocation policy in November, plus the complementary dividend, thanks to that, I am very thankful too.
I would like to say welcome to the new President, Tomás Muñoz. Of course, we shall not forget, I shall not forget the great efforts made by the former President, José Ignacio, and his team, Isidro Fainé, and of course, you, the new President, have a reference bank with a great reputation, with excellent employees, with an excellent staff. I hope you will apply excellent management practices for us to become stronger and more efficient. The way ahead is not easy, but I do trust you will make it. You will get there. I would like to say thank you to the trust, to Fundación La Caixa, who continues being a reference shareholder in the organization, and to the work done by volunteers who contribute to building a better, fairer society, one that brings opportunities to those in need.
Tomás Muñoz, Vice President, CEO, members of the board, thank you. Thank you very much for taking a bank to the leading position. Of course, my support goes to all shareholders. Congratulations. You have my greeting
The floor goes to Fernando Sáez de la Maza, who will be followed by Begoña Peiro Garcia.
Mr. Notary Public, I want my intervention to be in the minutes. Good morning. [Forein language] , Mr. President, Mr. CEO, ladies and gentlemen in the board, members in high management positions, representatives from the regional offices, and everybody in the staff, those who make it possible to fulfill goals in strategic plans. Thank you to those attending the meeting in the room or online. I come from JEIDA. I am the holder of 500,000 shares, but I'm just a voice today representing a committee.
CaixaBank is the first organization to have that type of committee, a committee which seeks to promote and boost and create communication channels to improve dialogues between the company and shareholders. I am referring to the so-called shareholder advisory meeting. Based on its own internal regulations, you can stay in the committee for three years maximum. Any shareholder can put himself or herself as a candidate on the website and be voted with just one condition: to have a minimum of 1,000 shares before and during his or her participation. As small shareholders, we say thank you to CaixaBank for this organ which facilitates communication with the organization, with the company, and above all, favors transparency and disclosure, supporting a very good governance practice. We have held long interviews with the president, with the managing director, with different departments, sustainability, finance. We had interviews with Micro Bank impulsa.
We've been able to visit private banking branches, retail branches, startup departments. In all such meetings, we benefited from informal dialogues with those responsible there, and we've been able to bring questions concerning analysis and management. Let me add that in the meeting held with the person responsible for the social department, we were most impressed because he told us that in a meeting with Pope Francis, the Pope, the actual Pope, was positively surprised when he was told about our commitment with society and the fact that we do share dividends with our trust, with our foundation for their benefit, in line with the spirit of La Caixa and President Francesc de Moragas in the past, which is part of our very principles. I would like to mention those who ensure good management with shareholders,
led by Dr. Marga Soulé, together with Josep, Maria, Arnau, Zayda, Manel, Inés, Diego, Meritxell, Anna, with whom we have links. We liaise with them from our advisory committee. Thank you. Thank you so much.
The floor goes to Begoña Peiro. She will be followed by Sara Cotanda Rromero.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon, dear shareholders, members of the board. My name is Begoña Peiro. I am the president of the union, CaixaBank CERBEF. I want my intervention to be in the minutes. I am addressing you with a clear message about a reality that cannot be ignored: commercial pressures on CaixaBank staff. This commercial pressure is so unsustainable that it has actually been acknowledged as a serious breach in our labors policy, thanks to an inspection conducted following our request. It is thanks to that that we managed to collect 13,000 signatures by employees.
The labor inspector has banished the company because such pressures are absolutely excessive and do affect our people's health and reputation as a company. The situation is further complicated. The inspector concluded that CaixaBank has breached the policy on occupational health and safety because they did not apply all necessary measures and because they did not investigate such complaints concerning employee risks. This is not subjective perception. This is matter of fact. These deficiencies are damaging our rights and demand the company to take urgent measures. Will you do the bidding of the inspector, or will you do the same as you did with us? Will you tell the inspector the sales policy cannot be changed, commercial pressures cannot be softened? What will you do? Will you give us tablets, pills to be emotionally well, to better know ourselves and improve our own health? Fairy tales, aren't they?
As you would understand, this is a risk, this jeopardizes our employees' health, and it also damages the service we give our customers. By the way, according to some ratings, CaixaBank is last before last one concerning emotional health and the employee's connection to the bank. Don't you think that affects profitability too in the company? Faced with that panorama, you all of a sudden come up with an idea which is absolutely far-fetched for you to continue receiving incredible dividends, like with increases coming to more than 47% with some of you, EUR 5 million last year. His salary was already rising. One more, his salary, Mr. Gortázar, 3% more. Can you not make it to the end of the month on your wages?
It is outrageous that employees are pressed incredibly and applied variable salaries without, you know, any sense whatsoever, their health being affected, and so managers and high positions, you know, share all these incredible dividends. Shame on you. Are you not embarrassed? From our union, we want to make it clear that some high positions were really unable to do things properly concerning their people's salaries. Instead of being ethical and empathetic, they dare threaten their employees, the staff, and the company ignoring such situations, such a situation. Sorry. Sustainability is not only measured in economic terms. It is also measured in your commitment with your employees. CaixaBank, apart from being profitable, needs to be accountable, needs to be respectful of the people, and this is not the case at all.
Ladies and gentlemen in the board, the time has come for people, for your people, to be at the very center of your decisions. Please respond and cut your incredibly high salaries. Be aware that previous actions were very, very commercially oriented, but let's hope, you know, we can all make it to the end of the month.
Thank you. Now the floor goes to Sara Cutanda Romero and afterwards Raquel Comet.
Good morning. First of all, I would like to make a remembrance for the victims of the DANA, of the floods and the storms, and to recognize the important labor of all that people. I want my intervention to be in the minutes. My name is Sara Cutanda. I'm an employee, and I'm a secretary of Comisiones CaixaBank, and I address this board on behalf of some shareholders who have delegated the vote on me, and I want to say thank you to them for the trust. After record profitability that has been in the headlines and reinforced the situation of CaixaBank in our industry, let's be honest. What has been the price of this?
Let's talk about CaixaBank staff, and let's be clear, loud and clear, of the sickness, the illness of this entity. Yes, I'm speaking about disease because this staff is really suffering the commercial impulse. They are so precious, constantly pressured because they have to meet some goals which are ever-increasing, even when they want to get their votes for the board. That's amazing. There is an awful control, so many meetings, so many trainings.
They don't allow us to work, and we know, God, we know we have unprecedented stress levels. What do you need to happen so you will react? Some months ago, there was a new commercial model that will improve our atmosphere in the workplace and the attention to our customers. This is nothing because there are no facts, only words. We have to stop being obsessed with products and looking just on the short term. While our staff is living this situation, managers are really giving each other millionaire bonuses, and they are making a proposal to the board again to increase their salaries so much instead of devoting part of these profits for the well-being of our staff, for being more transparent, to improve wages for those working in CaixaBank.
It is necessary to have new young talent and with voluntary retirement in such a way that we can improve the service we offer our customers and we can improve the atmosphere of the workplace. Dear members of the board, this company has to be a reference to attract and maintain talent. Please do work on the remote working. Please do have good careers for us. There are so many things that we have been claiming for so many years, and unfortunately, this board is not showing us any interest. Comisiones Obreras, our union, will be there. Whether there is conflict or there is an agreement is your choice. Your responsibility goes beyond profitability. A healthy company has to foster a good atmosphere in the working place and has to recognize the hard work of their staff.
Please be reminded of the phrase of Francesc Moragas, our founder, which is used when talking about business, but this does not apply to the staff. Impossible is only a little bit more difficult than difficult things. Focus on staff, but do it, really do it. Listen to them, learn from them, value them, and also improve their working conditions. Change what seems impossible into possible because it is possible. CaixaBank staff deserves it. That is why we will vote against 1, 2, 3, 6, and we will abstain in 1.3, 2, 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, and 7.2. Thank you.
Now Raquel Ruiz Gómez and then Mr. Ángel Bartolomé Moreno.
Good morning. Mr. President, the board members, shareholders, my name is Raquel Ruiz. I'm the secretary of UGT in CaixaBank, and I speak on behalf of UGT, CaixaBank workers, and all the shareholders who have delegated their votes in us. We are here again celebrating the historical profitability of CaixaBank. Congratulations, but not only to you, but to everyone who's working in CaixaBank right now. Allow me to ask you one question. Why have you forgotten the staff again? While the managers are having an increase of the wages, which are extraordinary, you are forgetting about all the workers of the workers. Please have it very clear. The real people who have got this profitability are the workers who are working very hard and sacrificing because behind the figures we have the people.
Without our commitment, without our effort, without our patience to work with the clients, because there's not enough staff and the increase in digitalization, these resources, these profits wouldn't be a reality. However, instead of recognizing our role in the success, the managers of CaixaBank have decided just to give them an increase in the salaries and wages and have forgotten the staff. Even those vulnerable collectives, those which are on temporary sick leave, and they have also fired more than 100 people in 2024. You are celebrating the welfare week, which whose welfare? CaixaBank is toxic for its own people. You are doing something similar to slavery, and you really have to take better care of your staff, and you are risking the sustainability of your own business in the medium term. You cannot work only with exhausted workers.
The big effort of all the CaixaBank workers is only benefiting a few of you. From UGT, we require an immediate reply to the needs of the staff. They need to end with the pressure for the commercial goals. They need extra wages. Dear members of the board, it is in your hands to change this journey. You have to walk the talk, and that is why we are voting against item number six. Thank you.
The floor is for Ángel Bartolomé Moreno and then Elena Serrano Verde.
I would like for my intervention to be recorded in the minutes. Mr. President, board members, dear shareholders, good morning. My name is Ángel Bartolomé, and I am talking on behalf of Antenna C and on behalf of many shareholders that have delegated the voting in us.
First of all, I want to congratulate you for your appointment, and we wish you the best because we really hope that the better for you, the better for us. We want to focus today on three main aspects that are repeated every year, and the staff really need some solutions from the managers. The topics are the working atmosphere, commercial pressure, and leadership model. Unfortunately, as we have been repeating meeting after meeting, the staff is pressured. They have to sell a lot, and they are not focusing on the customers because they cannot give the right service to them. This reality has its origin, and it is repeated year after year because the managers have a short-term view, and this has not changed. Even though it's been tried, it has not been changed.
This model is based on results, and they get it with pressure and control since the director, and they are paying the directors money for pressuring the rest of the staff, and this is not good for their health. Even though this does not seem important because they are focusing more on money than on the staff, these workers who are so pressured, and they are working very hard to improve the bank, they are exhausted, and there is so much stress, so much depression, and so much anxiety among the different workers, and they are burned out, and they have been there for years. As you have seen, the goals have been increased, and we have improved 70%, even though we are not being better treated. Mr. President, we have been claiming for the same things for many years.
It is urgent for you and your team to consider the health and welfare of your staff as a strategic factor for CaixaBank, and to this regard, you have to provide the right tools to the directors, and we have to avoid the commercial pressure we have. Talking about the goals, we would like to ask you, it is incentivized, and it is recompensated, the effort of the staff? No, this is not the situation. Wages, higher wages are only for a few. We will not tire of just claiming here, better wages in a universal and transparent way for the workers with clear criteria to implement a fair system that will really compensate responsibility, dedication, and effort.
A different thing I wanted to mention here, if we talk about the result of CaixaBank, I think that those results are clearly excellent, and we agree that this is due to the effort and the work of the whole staff. There is a part of the staff that are still not being recognized in their salaries, and nonetheless, they are working very hard. That is why, Mr. President, if we have a look at the results and the effort of your workers, what we ask you is that there is only one year left of this progressive equation. Please move it forward and make for all the employees to earn the same wages because, as you have said, we are part of the DNA of this company. Let me finish, Mr. President, wishing you the best of luck from our union, and also we want to cooperate with you to help you in your endeavors. Thank you very much for your attention.
[Foreign language] Doña Elena Serrano now, and then Óscar Serrano Bandel.
I want for my intervention to be recorded in the minutes. Good morning, shareholders, members of the board. My name is Elena Serrano. I am secretary of ESATE, and I want to say thank you to all the people that are supporting me this year. We want to welcome the new president, Mr. Muñoz. We hope that, as you have been in the unions in the past, we hope that you will at least listen to us and you will try to deal with some topics and offer us some solutions.
We are not sure if this will be the first steps of the new generation or this will be the last step of the cleaning due to origins. We also want to congratulate the people who have covered the results of the opinion of the workers of the survey that they did. They just offered us some color bars. We understand that they are not asking our customers because the results really do not match. We do not believe them. Are you not going to send us more information about this survey? We understand that you are worried, but please do understand that we have been waiting for two years for the new measures. We have been waiting for you not to hide any longer.
All the issues of this entity is it's true that you did lots of events, lots of lunches, and so on, but it would be better for you to work on the company. This is like children who behave for the Christmas present. That doesn't work. In reality, it would be cheaper. You just have to leave people to do the work alone. If Mr. Gortázar thinks that our staff is well paid in our industry, my God. Excuse me. First of all, this managing way is old-fashioned, and the better-paid staff are your colleagues from the top 300, and you that want to approve an increase of your bonus, 47%. Something that we will explain the pressure to the offices to get their votes. There are some things which are positives. We value the managers' agreements that recognize the work of these colleagues.
Maybe one day you can talk about the staff at the central services. Loans are good, and please tell us not to intervene in the bonus of my colleagues and the pressure of the staff. How can you get rid of the cancellation of insurance penalizations? How can you get rid of this moral of what you say and what you do? It would be easy also to have a transparent allocation system. Vacancies are not covered in the offices when they have so many candidates. Some of them are even not published. You have got rid of the incentive card. It's something that we said last year. You have changed for a measurement system in which ranking should disappear. As in many other instances, that's been only in the theory. This variable retribution system has allowed for goals to be increased 40%.
At the end of the world, we are facing it every fourth month. Are your bonus as well subjected to this? That is why you want to increase it today? We continue having to make the same number of calls, emails, team meetings. It would be easier to let us work because we are professionals, but obviously that would entail destroying intermediary management positions with people who come and meet up together and think about how can we work and be happier. You do not have the answer yet. What we ask for today will be present in the headlines tomorrow. Of course, we can be considered and proud of our money, but with money, do you have it all? Yes, you do, but do not forget that what feeds you is each and every person in the company, each employee.
Pay attention to them because you might be the biggest bank, but not the best one. You will never be the best one if you don't take care of your employees now.
The floor goes to Mr. Óscar Bayona Candé and then Antonio Canabernet.
I want my words to be in the minutes, literally. My name is Óscar Bayona[guess], President of ESTOC[guess]. I have 14,000 delegated shares. First of all, my greetings to our colleagues affected by the DANA and those who worked in the following days. Of course, we are thankful. We do value the help provided by the company, but let's be honest. Of course, we would have been more thankful with direct help, direct aid like Mercadona did or IKEA did, you know, giving money to their employees who were affected by the flooding.
We are here one more year to express the atmosphere at work, particularly with salespeople. Our pressure on us is incredibly high. Goals and targets are unproportionate. The policy is really aggressive. We are controlled to the very limit, and we are exhausted, mentally speaking. We are absolutely tired. We cannot be demanded to do so much. It hurts me if I fail, but it hurts more when people don't acknowledge what I'm trying to do. Who said we could do a good job all the time? This is a rap, you know, sung by the queen when she talked about mental health. Will you listen to my rap? You've been warned for many years in how many calls did you make yesterday? How many appointments do you have tomorrow? What did you sell today? Do 20 more calls before you go. You don't dare leave the office.
You want to destroy our health? It's not good business, is it? Perhaps in the future, we might be replaced with machines, but so will you. We are still human beings, you know, and we have our limits. Our company is not built with figures. It's built with people. Let's put it bluntly. We are undergoing a crisis, a human crisis, and insanity, insomnia, antidepressants, anxiety drugs, people who feel they are worth nothing. Our daily job is to sell, sell, and sell. The message is clear. If you don't sell, you are worthless. Where is the thin line between ethics and being a human? You are dealing with our health here. You tell us we are exaggerating, we are overdoing it, you know, and you tell us to have a closer look at our payroll. What payroll are you talking about?
You've been making money non-stop since you bought Bankia out. We can do our numbers too, and we get peanuts. You tell us we are the best salary staff in the industry. Are you serious about that? Are you having a laugh? Do not you think? Can not you feel how knackered we are, you know, if you compare things across banks? Yes, the CEO is having a higher salary, up to EUR 5 million. Are not you ashamed, Mr. President? Ladies and gentlemen, what is important? For the CEO to be happy. We are not machines. We are humans. You cannot be healthy if you are not mentally healthy. This is what thousands of mates feel. You cannot push us to our very limits. You are to change things, and we are to report things, and we will not stop.
We will not stop until you stop discriminating our colleagues who joined us of 2012, and we will continue until our work doesn't hurt. Thank you.
The floor goes to Antonio Valle Rincón. He will be followed by Yolanda Gijón Alonso.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I want my words to be in the records in the minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, members of the board, CEO, Mr. President, Ms. Vice President, congratulations on your recent appointment. Good morning. Good afternoon. I am here on my own behalf and also representing my colleagues in the union, Federació d'Esteve de Catalunya. I would have thought these microeconomics aspects and dividends you shared with us today and the reform of the varying salary policy would have repercussions on the staff, but that is not the case. Very much the opposite.
It could have been an opportunity to soften tension and pressures, and rather challenges and commercial goals have been strengthened. What is it? Ongoing pressure. It is a pandemic in the industry, and CaixaBank is taking the worst practices possible. We are not doing fine. People are absolutely fed up, you know, very few feel proud to work in CaixaBank. We are not the best company you want to work in at all. In actual fact, the staff is now coming to the point that this meeting would be, you know, heard. You could listen to their protests, protests about a model which is never-ending in profitability generation, but in actually treating employees not in the best possible way. This has been discussed in depth. It has been submitted with all possible levels, with all possible managers, but nothing at all. We want more dignified treatment.
We do agree with the rest of unions. We need to bring back a commercial model that is respectful of people to try and do whatever it takes, but we will do it all unions coming together. The question today is, what do you plan on doing with the company and what do you plan on doing with us, with us in CaixaBank to put an end to these unbelievably strong commercial pressures? I would very much like for you to be as generous with the staff as you are with yourselves in the board because, as has been said, your salaries seem to have grown quite considerably, have they not, in the board? Yes, let's be as ambitious as you announce concerning AI investment. It's all very well, but what will it take?
Restructuring the staff again, reducing the number of employees with that new model eventually to come and be implemented? Yes, let's hope that the use of artificial intelligence will put an end to the very many mistakes you make, spelling mistakes you make in Catalan when you in your documents, spelling mistakes. Finally, it's okay. Yeah, let's hope that, you know, what are the reasons for the headquarters to stay in Valencia? As you would understand, it's not a matter of being comfortable or not in Valencia. We are talking about being fair, being just, and having our headquarters back in Barcelona, in Catalonia. Thank you very much to all of you for listening to this intervention and those who delegated their votes on me.
[Foreign language]
Ms. Reinés, sorry, good morning. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, members of the board, I would like my intervention to be in the minutes. My name is Yolanda Guillén. I am the first vice president of SHIM, the main union in CaixaBank. I'm also here on behalf of those in Talboc. As a union, before I continue, I would like to acknowledge the tasks of the staff. Despite difficulties, we've made it possible to reach extraordinary results for the organization thanks to our professionality and dedication and adaptation capacity. Without that, these figures would not have come true. Having said so, behind such results, there is a labor reality that needs to be clearly described. In 2025, a new commercial model, supposedly more oriented on the customer, has been put in place yet to give our customers bespoke treatment, including a number of aspects.
Unfortunately, the reality in the banks, in the branches, is not that totally unattainable. Challenges have been put in place, and that discourse, listening to your customers, has been diluted into focusing on the products the organization is more interested in, putting in place extremely aggressive sales strategies, which are absolutely wearing us down day after day, as confirmed by recent surveys. Lack of autonomy, lack of acknowledgement, and constant pressures affecting people's mental and physical health. The inspection in March also concluded that CaixaBank did not comply with their legal obligations and duties concerning occupational health and safety, with really high burdens labor-wise and a lack of preventative approaches. That gap between the institutional discourse and the reality of employees also has an impact on clients, hence the recent rankings which point to a bad opinion about CaixaBank nationally. Si ho creixen.
This is the worst valuation, and it should be a warning between what the bank says it's offering and what it's offering in reality to the customer. The customer offers us trust, which is so important, and it's been eroded by a model that gives priority to business over people, and we want to claim a wage increase on the collective bargain. Being honest, historically, we've lost lots of, kiss it with power, because the agreement never compensates inflation. These accumulated losses among the years have really gone against the workers, and it's felt as an unfair situation. In the meantime, the company has more and more profits every year, and in this context, with record profitability, it would be fair that part of this success would be reflected in the wages and salary conditions of the workers.
If we go back to the Balearic Islands, specifically, we need a reply to two urgent problems. First of all, access to housing. When we have the highest prices in the housing market in the Balearic Islands, and our colleagues cannot access their first house, the homogeneous system on loans and mortgages creates real discrimination for our colleagues, and we need some measures to compensate this imbalance. On the other hand, we have to improve the health conditions in the Islands because there are not enough doctors. This situation can be justified, and there's an increase of the health coverage to guarantee health services for the whole of the staff wherever they live. That's why, again, from the SIP, we want to make these claims. You cannot ignore this reality any longer.
From SIP, we want to improve and to fight for the rights of our workers, and we want to work on a better banking model, not built only on figures but built on people as well. Thank you.
Now the floor is for Joan Reinés and then Ignacio Casado.
Good morning, everyone. Mr. President, dear board members, dear shareholders, dear colleagues. I'm Joan Reinés, and I make my intervention on the behalf of UOP, Unión Obrera Balear. I would like for my intervention to be recorded, registered in the minutes. Any day in our offices, we are receiving mails demanding us to work on the goals of the commercial goals of the company, but intermediate managers don't care. They are sending us so many emails telling us to sell more life insurance, to sell more products. We have to be good salespeople. We workers didn't know what to do.
I mean, we work with health insurance, house insurance, and so on. Yes, we have the warnings. We have these demanding emails, and it looks like workers do not know how to work, but this is an average day for us. We constantly are receiving mailings based on forbidden rankings that are reminding each center of the situation, and they want to try for us to be competitors instead of colleagues. That means that, and it is a high irony, we receive that there is going to be a well-being week. Among the emails, we receive calls pressuring us further. Dear Mr. President, board members, where is the well-being of your workers and the good attention to our customer? While you congratulate yourself for the profits, we are just trying to support our families. As you seem to love rankings, let me mention one.
I wanted to talk about it here, but they say it's not possible. Talking about the EMO ranking, the economic media, talking about the emotional burning of customers and customers with the bank, and CaixaBank is the second last. The situation is worse than last year. CaixaBank is showing a worrisome trend, contrasting with the industry trend. You have not been able to reconstruct in a meaningful way. Excuse me, could you offer us a bit of water? No water this year? I was saying that this year, the entity could not reconstruct their emotional bonding with their clients. Which measures are you contemplating to improve this situation? Which is the role of the commercial aggressivity against your own workers? In any case, our union wants to improve the trust of our clients, the loyalty of our workers, to improve the policies against burnout.
We need not only hunters; we need trust. We need long-term relationships. This commercial pressure by the managers has much to do with machines than with people. Please stop calling our customers all the time and changing your managers. Let's work in the long term. Let's work on the trust of our customers. Let's work with better systems, better tools. Also, the variable retribution system has to be agreed together with the representative unions and the workers. We said last year already that we have to end with the salary discrimination of the staff. Base salary is not equal to that of the market, and let's not forget about the loyalty plan. Can you imagine a party in which cake is only being given to some of the guests? That is what CaixaBank is right now. We have highlighted that workers are not really motivated.
When they are motivated, when your workers are happy, your customers are going to be happy, and your profits will be increased, and that would be good for your shareholders. Business life and working life has to be good for the workers. I would just like to add that in CaixaBank, it is going to be difficult to improve that emotional bonding with your customers. We need to change our journey before it's too late. Regarding our vote, taking into account how hypocritical this board is, that having different measures for them and their workers, we will vote against item number six of the agenda.
Now, Ignacio Casado has the floor, and then we will have Don Carlos Guerrero Manuel.
Good morning. I'm Ignacio Casado. I'm a worker, and I'm the representative of CGT in CaixaBank. You can imagine how difficult it is here to be here for us, just with the barrels of bad news when you are so happy with your profits. We understand that there is not a correlation between the success at numbers and the success for the workers. It seems that even though society is advancing, CaixaBank is in the Middle Ages when we talk about the commercial aspects. You see, along centuries, we human beings have been trying to torture some people into confession or even to get better results for the companies. Many ideas, many of these ideas, fortunately, are no longer in use, but some of them, with rebranding, have been adapted to the new times. For instance, you know the Chinese droplets? You know it's the commercial pressure, so you know how it works.
You receive emails, you receive calls, you have meetings all the time, constantly. Workers, first of all, are almost desperate. If you insist and insist and insist, it creates anxiety, depression, and many health issues, even fatal for the workers. Even though we understand when you talk about 1,000 organic leaves, you are maybe not referring to this, we understand that this might be a reality when workers have to leave because of health issues. This is very hard because new talent is not staying there. The thing is they come to work to our banking, and they do not want to be like us. They think that they are looking like us; they are going to look like us in the future. They do not want to be ill in the future, so they do not want to be like us, so they run away.
We are seeing that these results which are offered are not very transparent, and we will see how it works. Talking about payments, it is not very nice to talk about payment. The CEO says that our staff is well paid, but we had the average payment is EUR 78,000. This is my payroll from last year, and I had been working in this industry for 20 years. This is the figures I'm imagining after so many years. Just half of those EUR 78,000. That agreement, that bargain was awful. There are so many changes right now. We have AI just promising us infinite possibilities, but there's something I can tell you. We are all getting old. This is my wish for all of us, for all of you. We are all getting old, and we will all see the future.
Let's make the future more humane every day at our offices because I am at the offices every day, and I see the elderly suffering because they cannot sign with these optical pens in these tablets. They cannot remember the password, the password of the card, the password of the app for the smartphone. They are so tired, and they spend so much time in the ATMs. We have everything, but we do not have the staff to help them. We are only there for them when we want to sell them some insurances. Your achievement has been profitability on one hand for you, not social responsibility, not humane conditions, and so on. We do everything this so you can come here once per year just to get more money and to congratulate yourself, and the rest of us are just dying, trying. Thank you. Tiene la palabra.
The floor goes to Carlos Guerrero Naranjo, who will be followed by María Fraile.
Mr. President, shareholders, members of the board, my name is Carlos Guerrero. I am a shareholder and a representative of the staff. I want my intervention in the minutes. Congratulations on the healthy share value. It's been a great year, 2024. Yes, thank you for your goodwill and your good intentions for the strategic plan 2025-2027. You did say, you know, customer care is part of the plan, and you showed us that you included some of our demands, demands by the employees. In the first three months of the strategic plan, it hasn't come true. Based on publication by all the unions, pressures are ongoing and constant and a way of demotivating the staff and affecting their health. If you run a marathon, you don't sprint at the beginning.
Yes, I'm a shareholder, and I do support long-term strategies which do not run like mad from the beginning of the race. Our challenges, our goals for our quarterly goals are higher, and it's a way of stressing people out, making the staff nervous. I don't think anybody wants these factors for demotivation to prevail, do you? Because it's only part of a short-term scenario, which is really far from the Nosotros plan. Being brought fruit, having a gym nearby, that's very well, but if you are knackered, it's no good. Let me show you some real examples that I thought would be very nice, and let me tell you what the reality is. The number of customers has been reduced per portfolio on the basis of employees, but it has come together with a general change in such portfolios with the loss of the so-called manager.
Customers have been rearranged nationally, and so we've shifted from local homogeneous portfolios to portfolios which are loose and scattered around the country. With homogeneous local portfolios, we could keep close to customers because we knew the territory, we knew the situation, and even the regulations in each region, which were aspects which would generate links in your interviews with clients. With the new situation of these portfolios, these synergies are vanishing. In fact, in many surveys, customers have expressed their lack of satisfaction when their account managers have been moved. Is that what you wanted? To have depersonalized services? I want to ascertain what the strategy is behind these portfolio changes. Another example. If one of our columns on the charts was impact on incentives, I do not think it's coming true. The basis, the instructions have not yet been published at the end of the first quarter.
Another example, Nosotros, the plan. It was supposed to give us a better experience in CaixaBank, but that has not come true either because the atmosphere at work is really tense. It's pushing us to our very limits. To the point, to the extent that many shareholders actually feel harassed. In some, the slogan "Customers at the center" has been replaced with "Sales and margins at the center." We're still on time. Shall we think, shall we reflect if we are well positioned to take that type of jump in our service policy and also in regard to talent recruitment? Thank you very much for your attention.
The floor goes to María Fraile. She will be followed by José Javier Ballesteros.
Hello, good afternoon, notary public. I want my intervention to be in the minutes. My name is María Fraile. I represent Banca Armada Campaign with 27,004 shares. One more year, I'm here protesting and reporting on the relationship of CaixaBank and the arm race in Europe and in Palestine, in Gaza. The current situation reminds us of dark times in the 20th century when the exponential growth in the expenditure in arms and weapons resulted in catastrophic consequences. This situation in Europe in 2024 meant that expenditure in weapons was over $2 billion, according to the Stockholm Institute. The plan announced by von der Leyen further takes us to stronger raising in that situation. Let alone that increase in the investment is not in line with the current situation. As argued, rather, it is part of a long-term strategy that reinforces the power of Western arm industries, perpetuating the logics of war in Palestine. Israel, since October 2023, has committed crimes and killed more than 50,000 people. This has been witnessed live by the whole world.
Israel's attitude is being investigated by the Court of Justice, and Netanyahu has been sued by the International Court of Justice. What is the role of CaixaBank faced with all that? As shown by the report we published yesterday entitled "The Business of Banks in the War Industry," CaixaBank ranks third among private institutions and ranks 91st in the international rank. In recent years, CaixaBank has won incredible benefits, many of that coming from the defense business. You have invested a lot of millions in weapon companies. I'm talking about Airbus, for instance, and companies like Indra, Navantia, mechanical engineering companies from Spain. Another report entitled "Arm Banking and Their Accountability in Gaza," published in October, shows that CaixaBank funds and continues funding companies that supply the Israeli army with weapons, which are used in their massacres.
More particularly, CaixaBank has funded Boeing, Boeing being a manufacturer of bombs, combat helicopters sold to Israel and used against Palestinians and civilians, which are now investigated as war crimes. In November 2023, the bombing in Al-Burei, a refugee camp, resulted in a toll of 15 dead, including children. This was caused by bombs produced by Boeing and sold to Israel before that date. We see clearly that the role of CaixaBank is key to encouraging this business in Europe and is notorious. Without your support from CaixaBank, many of these weapon companies could not continue developing these lethal weapons. Members of the board, the question to be asked is really clear. Will you continue giving priority to profit in the detriment of causing crimes and the death of people? This is not unavoidable. It is the result of political and economic decisions you are part of.
Three out of four banks could not be manufactured without the support given by companies like CaixaBank. That is why we urge you to invest in companies that promote genocide. We ask you and urge you to be ethical. What type of world do you want to build with your investment? Do you want to continue having your hands dirty with blood? It is time for you to show accountability and put an end to the arm business. Thank you.
The floor goes to Luis Gabas.
My name is Luis Gabas Martín. I want to say thank you for being given the floor. I want my request and my intervention to be in the minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, members of the board, first of all, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for the results obtained for your long-term efforts and management. CaixaBank has proved to be a committed company, committed with society. Those of us who trust in your project, we do not only do so for numbers and figures, but there's something more personal that I would like to share with you. I am a patient. I have spined this trophy, a rare disease that affects my everyday life, like many other hundreds in Spain. Children and adults who have this rare disease are faced with many difficulties. That's why I want to ask something from you, something that can make a difference for many, many families. I want Fundación La Caixa to increase the support to rare diseases. More particularly, I want the foundation to cooperate with the foundation of this rare disease who have been working to try and improve patients' quality of life by training professionals, by supporting families. I know Fundación La Caixa does a lot.
I know there are many problems to attend to, but there are causes that require a firmer attitude, and we are one of those. Talking about rare diseases is synonymous with children who cannot run, young people who cannot be independent, families that fail to find answers, but it also means talking about science and opportunities. Sometimes we are not totally aware of some problems unless we are affected by them. It is then that reality stops being a number and becomes a pressing personal issue and an avoidable issue. It is urgent to take action, to be committed, even if it does not affect us directly. CaixaBank could lay a bridge, could become an alley for the word hope to be more meaningful and have a stronger meaning. I would like to thank you again for you not letting anybody behind. Thank you.
This is it for face-to-face interventions. We need to read two interventions who are on the internet. The first one by Mr. José Javier Ballesteros from Pozuelo de Alarcón. The subject is senior citizen clients. Can we have a member of the board dealing, dedicated to this subject? I am 85 years old. I am a lawyer and a shareholder. Of course, I am experienced in liaising with elderly people in a number of fields, including voluntary work. That would be great. I also address the board to suggest the creation of a member specialized in that. That position would be greatly beneficial and valuable in assessing the needs of senior citizens. I would like to offer myself as an advisor because I could share with you valuable insights to ensure the inclusion of senior citizens. Thank you very much for your attention.
I am a lawyer and I am 85 years old. Vamos, si les parece, con la segunda, que es la última de las intervenciones. Let's go to the second one, which is the last one we are receiving remotely. With this, we will finish the shareholder question. Vicente Enrique Fuentes Zulbal. He wishes for his intervention to be recorded in the minutes. First of all, thank you very much for the attention in the last shareholder meetings and for allowing me to share my experience during so many decades with your institution. Managers receptive to the issues of their customers is fundamental to guarantee the future of their company. Regarding my experience, there are some positive points. The attention to clients in my office has improved so much thanks to the professionality of the director and their employees. I want to talk about the commercial director here too.
We have heard about all things they have attended. They have tried to solve our issues. They also have solved the problems with CaixaBank consumers. They also minor accounts are being solved. However, there are still some issues. These are the non-positive items from last year. First of all, regarding consumers' cards from CaixaBank that create some commissions which are necessary, and then some PINs and then some also passwords which make it very difficult. The clients lose a lot of waste, a lot of time with claims. I think that my claims were transmitted to the responsible ones. Also, some other services we have on the one hand, the commercial department, and then we have the banking department. For instance, in July, the change of debit cards with some other conditions.
It was publicly advertised on the website, but in reality, it was not working in the contract. All the advantages, conditions are not transparent. On the other hand, we have different conditions for the same cards, and that's a shocking situation. All of these create a confusing situation. We all have cards, but we don't share the same condition. The web information is one, the contract information is another. We want to avoid confusions in the future. Regarding commissions for the purchase of CaixaBank shares, we cannot understand that the commission for buying is low, but for sale is very high. That means that most of my portfolio is not in CaixaBank itself, but in another. That's why I've decided to sell and buy. Sales commissions should be as reduced as purchase commissions. Regarding the services, we have to improve.
Clearly, CaixaBank should be adapted to the services offered by some other bank entities, and they should even improve them. We should have some added services to the card, like, for instance, to have travel insurance, for instance, when you travel to the States, and some other services with some eSIM cards to access business lounges in the airport. Regarding customer service, there is room for improvement. Regarding when you want to ask a visit, this should be more flexible. We should decide who is the manager attending us at the different offices. Telephone service should be improved and increased. On the other hand, there is really room for improvement in the platform services and both in the app and the website, because sometimes you have to ask for a meeting just to do something very simple, which is not working on the app and on the web.
Really, things without any importance that you can solve with other banks in your website or with the app on your smartphone. In CaixaBank, you have to go to the office. I just want to improve the entity, because for me, this is a very important entity. It is one of the best of Europe. Thank you very much for your attention.
Now we finish the questions for the shareholders, both on site and remotely. Now we are going to reply to the different interventions, notwithstanding that some of the interventions will receive a reply in writing in the following week. We are going to give a response to Mr. Conesa. Mr. Conesa, first of all, I wanted to say thank you for your congratulations.
Regarding the condition of passive employees, as you said, we are respecting the agreements that we have, but it is true that there are other considerations. Of course, we will study your topic, and we will give you a reply regarding this topic. Thank you. Now we'll reply to Mr. Girón and Mr. Martín Gonzalo.
Both Mr. Girón and Mr. Martín can share this reply. First of all, you mentioned that our results are not real, have been increased, which is honestly, we don't agree with you, because these results have increased a lot. That is why we are comparing it with the results of other years, and the results are attractive, yet reasonable. You have also talked about the taxes, and you said that the tax for banking is 15%. That is not right. The tax for banking is 30%.
It's more for banking than for other kinds of entities. Society has a tax of 25%. As you know, banking and finance institutions are paying 30% of taxes. Our average for last year for taxes was 31%, as you can see on our balance sheet. Regarding the public bailout, CaixaBank has not received any. The only thing that we did is a very successful merge in fair terms that has allowed for a revaluation of our shares, both for banking and CaixaBank. Commissions have been mentioned as well, saying that they have been increased during 2024. As I explained in my presentation, the commissions which have been increased have been those regarding the resources we manage. Recurrent banking commissions have been reduced during last year as we find more and more clients who have a basket of products.
We can avoid some commissions then, and they can save them. You have talked about the claims. You mentioned 7,030. The truth be said, it had been 4,000. In 2024, we have a reduction of 40% of claims. When we talk about this, we are the biggest bank in Spain. In absolute terms, of course, we have more. In relative terms, since 2023, we are in the same position as other banking institutions. We want to get better. That is why we have reduced 40% of the claims. Of course, quality is one of our values. It is crucial for us. As the President said in his presentation, it is crucial for us. There is always room for improvement regarding quality, but we have improved our external indicators during the last years.
We are in a process of constant improvement, and that's what we want to do. Of course, we take all the claims we receive very seriously. There's been mention as well regarding the credits and deposits. Please be reminded that the situation in Spain is of high liquidity. The financing system looks for growth in credit portfolio. As a result of this, there's lots of competence and competitiveness. Small SMEs are getting cheaper interest rates here in Spain than in Germany, for instance. We can say the same regarding mortgages at fixed rate, which are 0.75% cheaper as well. Regarding expensive revolving cards and so on, we are applying all the court rulings of the European Court of Justice. Yes, we've been very transparent, and we are very active in reaching agreements.
That is what we are going to do in the future. If we think we have to give something back, we do that. We do not want our customers to have to go to court. We try to avoid that for them, and also to avoid going to court unnecessarily. Regarding the ESMA report on the sustainable goals, there are still some regulations which have not been implemented. We are achieving these goals with our funds, and we are publishing in yearly reports our impact. Also, I would like to say that we are sustaining these results with lower interest rates. This is a challenge, but we think that we will be able to maintain this profitability around 14%-15%.
For that, we have to increase our market share, to increase our volume in a sensible way with a good risk profile and controlling our costs. This is the challenge we are facing. Of course, we'll do our best to achieve it. Thank you.
Now we will reply. Mrs. Cortés, I want to say thank you for your comments on my behalf and on behalf of the board and on behalf of the CaixaBank team, because we are so proud of the social work of the Fundación La Caixa. We firmly believe that it makes us different. It is something that really is a boost for our whole team. I want to congratulate you, Mrs. Cortés, for your work on the different NGOs. Congratulations. Thank you very much for your work. To Mr. Pagi, I want to reply.
Thank you very much. We appreciate what you are telling us. This helps us to work every day harder to achieve excellence in what we do. We want to say thank you for all the people that are our customers, because that's what makes us different. The new strategic plan has the ambition for CaixaBank to keep its essence, supporting customers and society, as we have all been doing. To this regard, we want to say that we are very proud of Fundación La Caixa. Thank you very much. I'm going to reply now to Mr. Sáez de la Maza. Thank you very much for your intervention. Thank you very much on my behalf and on behalf of the members of the board and of the people who work in CaixaBank.
We really think in CaixaBank that this board that we began so many years ago, it's improving the relationship between shareholders and the customers. We think that this is an excellent tool to have a good dialogue with the shareholders, especially with those small shareholders. We want to work with transparency and communication. I fully agree in the feeling proud, so proud on the social work from La Caixa. Regarding at global level for CaixaBank, the participation of Fundación La Caixa in our shareholders is highly valued. Thank you very much, Mr. Sáez de la Maza. Now we will reply globally to the other 10 interventions from the unions and by Mr. Guerrero. First of all, regarding the CEO, regarding his increase, which is 14.9%, with more increase in the variable than in the fixed part.
This has been supported by the two main voters, and it has been done with an expert in managers' remuneration. Has two main objectives. First of all, to know and to recognize some of the tasks that the president was doing before. It is important to highlight that if we add up the wages of the CEO and the delegate, they are practically the same as in 2024. Secondly, we have to maintain the retribution of the CEO on the average of the European group and to reduce the gap if we compare it to the IBEX 35. I would like to tell you that this proposal is backed up by the performance and the leadership of our CEO. We have the best one.
Thank you, Gonzalo, on my behalf and on behalf of the board for your effort and dedication and for your contribution to the result of our entity. As I said in my intervention, we have an exceptional team, the best in the market. Please note that agreements were always reached with union representatives in all subjects because we do believe that our human team is key to our success. Let me express that pressure and incorrect practices do not feed into our company. Similarly, we are demanding, of course, that's undeniable. In a highly competitive environment, we need to be demanding if we want to be best in class, if we want to offer the best possible services to our customers who are demanding too, and with us and with our teams. Gonzalo, thank you.
I would like to say thank you for the interventions by employee representatives and thank them for their work, which is so important, representing the staff, representing employees. I also appreciate the comments were critical. Thank you for acknowledging results. It's obvious that we all agree with that. Of course, the good results are, of course, down to the staff. Without them, without the team, it wouldn't have been possible. Of course, the team needs shareholders too, and their investment, which is really high, obviously, it is all down to the shareholders too. It is their coming together that makes us move on. The board, the managing team, of course, acknowledges that work. We talked about excellence in service provision, in customer care. Some people from ADICAE mentioned the customer focus. We are working on it, of course.
Being a quality company can only be possible on the basis of a good environment and atmosphere at work. It only makes sense. We are making progress there, though there's still a long way to go. It's only logical. As for sales pressure, the President mentioned it. I don't have much to add. Yes, we need to be demanding. Of course, demands need to be responsible. That is why in 2024 and for 2025, some elements have been transformed and modified into incentives for better rewarding our people. We reviewed the segmentation model in sales with specialist figures. We launched many projects to gradually reduce the workload at the office so that people can have the necessary time for added value services. We have always diverted calls to the call center. A lot of investment has been put there.
Many conversations have been shifted to a centralized switchboard or call center, which will also resort to AI technology. Many tasks have been transferred onto the digital center. A couple of people talked about incentives. We adjusted the incentive system, of course. After listening to our network, our people trying to see how interests could be better aligned with customer service, short-term actions were eliminated. The rankings related to incentives have been eliminated, particularly those that could be misinterpreted in some occasions, so that commercial follow-up can be reduced and be more focused on technology, because technology also, well, already allows us to have real-time information. Important progress has also been made as for the empowerment of the network on delegated decisions. For instance, of course, a change takes monitoring for a while, for a period, and some fine-tuning is still necessary.
Our business director is working on that together with the team. Reference has been made to the atmosphere at work. We take that atmosphere at work very seriously. It's really important, our people's well-being. We offer services to people. For a start, you know it's out of humanity. A lot of initiatives have been launched. We undertook a complex integration process, which turned out to be very good. Of course, there's margin, there's room for improvement. We also study other work-related aspects, some of them not being yet completed. The latest study on our people's commitment shows some improvement as to the willingness to work in CaixaBank, which is really good, an improvement. Rest assured in the unions that we're really focused and happy about the positive evolution in that respect. This is a never-ending job, of course.
There are things to be done yet. As for absenteeism, it remained stable in 2024. People going off sick due to psychological conditions did not rise. Reference was mentioned to an inspection in 2023 when many of the measures I just described were not yet in place. We will continue deploying such measures, as I explained, and we will also design new ones. As a counterpoint, let me remind you the latest rank by Merco Talento. CaixaBank ranks seventh as the best company to work at. Something seems to have changed, I would say. We do not only rank seventh, which is a high position in the finance sector. We have improved by 27 positions since 2021. In other ranks, 37 positions. Of course, there is room for improvement, as would be the case with any organization. I have no doubt that this is the way to go.
Reference was made to the generational takeover. We are really focused on that. In 2022 and 2023, 1,700 new employees joined us. Most of them, over 1,000, were for younger people. We will include more than 3,000 new employees under 34 years of age, according to our strategic plan. I have numbers here for those under 35%, which is below the average. I totally agree with you. CaixaBank needs not only to attract that talent, that young talent, but to keep it. We will do so. Finally, reference was made to measures put in place during the Dana disaster. Many measures benefited our staff. I was congratulated by many employees and even by union representatives. I do not want to bore you, but I can assure you we did our best for our clients and our employees who suffered from the disaster.
We are ever so proud of all the work done. Some comments were made about salaries as of the merger between CaixaBank and Bankia. We agreed for labor conditions to be aligned within a four-year period. That was done, which meant really good improvements for CaixaBank employees, former employees. We are now year four from the merger, so that salary compensation will be completed. It was certainly beneficial to CaixaBank employees, as I said, based on synergies amounting to EUR 1 billion. We are flexible, but our approach needs to be mostly face-to-face. I am responding, I am answering to the remote work proposal. As I said, we have face-to-face offices. Finally, I would like, the President also talked about it. Some of you talked about reaching agreements favoring the staff. We like the agreement formula, of course, because we know perceptions differ.
We like listening to people, understanding views from union representatives, and find consensus. Always trying to find consensus since January 2024. A great many agreement processes have been taken forward with union representatives, and we will continue doing so. Many comments, many interventions were made. I'm bound to have missed a few, but our human resources team will certainly reply to them all. Our staff are doing a great job at this very positive moment in time. Thank you.
I will now answer the comments by María Fraile. Yes. Thank you very much, María Fraile Banca Armada. She's offered information and she's made some accusation, which we don't find very truthful. I wanted to remind you what we do, finance the defense industry.
We have a policy which is public that is being reviewed in some of the aspects, March 2025, with our commitment and our respect for human resources. We always show that, and we will do that in the future. Regarding financing to this industry, we apply the 10 principles of the World Pact, responsible banking, and the principles of sustainability for insurance, all based in the United Nations Pact. You can see them in our website. Let me highlight something about our policy regarding the defense industry. In our policy, you can see that no company in our group is related to any arm factory which are compromised or working with countries. We only work with end users, not with middlemen. We do not finance anything in countries with the risk of breaching the human rights. These are the principles that we follow.
Of course, everyone can understand that the geopolitical environment has changed a lot, and countries are changing all the time, also in Europe. From our point of view, we think that the finance sector industry has a responsibility and should help in this. We will be responsible, and we will comply with all the current policies. Thank you. I would like to reply to Mr. Gatavas. Thank you very much for your words. As I said before, we are really proud of the social work of Fundación La Caixa. We know that this is part of our work that goes to the society. This not only makes us different, but it also really supports our team and helps us to do our best. Regarding the petition which has not been, you know that we will carry your petition to the foundation. Thank you very much for your words.
Regarding the intervention of Mr. Ballesteros, as you know, CaixaBank, because they want to have a balance in the members of the board, we have a policy of choosing members of the board in a balanced way, in an egalitarian way, in CaixaBank and in the whole group. This policy is reviewed periodically. We look for gender, age, and personal diversity. We also look for people with different career backgrounds because we want to have independent and diverse opinions that will help us to make better decisions. Additionally, all the members have to pass an identity test by the European Bank that assesses the candidates so they can work proficiently. Gonzalo, regarding the attention to the elderly, yes, we have more than 4 million people who are older than 65 years. It's 40% of the Spanish population older than 65 years old.
This is a key part of our activity. This is not new. This has always been in our DNA. We devote lots of time to improve the services and the products for these people. The commitment we have is that we do not want to leave towns that do not have offices. We are in 3,600 municipalities. We are in 900 more municipalities than some years ago. We have increased our staff. We now have 22,000 new members. We also do some training regarding how to better attend the elderly people. We are offering free training to our elderly customers regarding the digital tools and other things. Let me remind you that we pay 34% of retirement pensions in Sp
ain. We pay them with no restrictions. The ATM has been adapted. We offer them customized attention with a telephone number for them.
We are still trying to launch more initiatives, for instance, to create reference centers with the public and private participation to offer better service to the elderly. Please, this is a clear priority for us. We will reply to Mr. Fuentes. Mr. Fuentes is an amazing source of information and ideas. Thank you very much for all your suggestions and ideas. These are really useful. We see that we have moved forward, but there's still room for improvement. Some of the things you are mentioning are already included in our improvement plans, but you are giving us also some other very good ideas. We will talk with our quality department, the service department, some other departments. If it's the case, they can contact Mr. Fuentes Gurba if they need to clarify anything. Thank you. Now, let's move to the approval, if so, of the agreements. The Secretary has the floor.
As the information regarding the different proposals for the Board is in our regulation, and I'm going to read some of those proposals. We will read only a summary of the longer proposals. We would like to tell you that as we have informed before, you can vote after reading the summarized proposals. According to Article 6, we will declare these articles approved if we get the needed votes, notwithstanding the detailed information of voting, which will be posted on our website following the current regulation. It will be included in the minutes of this meeting.
We ask all the shareholders and those who are doing it by proxy to those who have not done it yet, go please and vote at the end of the room so we can count the votes until we finish the voting. We also urge those shareholders who are voting remotely, if you haven't done so, do that please because you will find the right place to do that on our platform. Let's go with the summary of the proposals regarding items one, two, and three on annual accounts and corporate management, the approval of the individual and consolidated annual accounts and the respective management reports of the year ended on 31 December 2024. We have all the information in the consolidated report conforming to the standard regulation.
Also, the approval during 2020, the results that you can see, and also with the dividend on the 24th of April. We are going to the approval of the board of directors' management during the auditors, and we are choosing PricewaterhouseCoopers following the recommendation of the audit commission. Regarding the items one and three, we want to accept Doña Coros or assign as an independent Fernando de María Ulrich as a member and Doña Teresa Quintero Quilla, Dominical one. In the items 4.4 and 4.8, as new independent members of the board, we want to mention Doña Rosa María Piñero, Mr. Luis Álvarez, and Mr. Fernando Sánchez, etc. As a new Dominical member of the board, we want to mention Mr. José María Méndez Álvarez Cendrón. We also want to have the proposal as other external Concejal Pablo Arturo Fernández Calderón.
We want to state that these new appointments will have to be approved by the Central European Bank, except Mrs. García Piñero, who has already been approved. As well, we want to inform that this board is comprised of 15 members. If we need one, we will make a new proposal to the board. We want to know that the information is available for the shareholders, and we have all the proposals for the appointment board. In item number five of the agenda, we have the proposal regarding our portfolio and to the reduction of the social equity. On the one hand, we want authorization to the acquisition of own shares for five years. Secondly, we want to reduce social capital in 10%. In the item number six of the agenda, 6.1 to 6.5, we are including the agreements regarding remuneration.
On the one hand, we want to establish EUR 5 million fixed annual amount maxim for the members of the board. Secondly, we want to approve a new policy of remuneration for the members of the board for CaixaBank from 2025 to 2028. It will replace the ones contemplated in the previous plan. We have the remuneration of executive members of the board as non-executive members of the board. Sorry. Also, we want to approve some agreements regarding the variable remuneration of these members of the board. We want 210 positions of this identified collective to be able to be above 100% of the fixed remuneration, not going further than 200%. We want also to vote on the annual report on the remuneration of the members of the board, which is at the disposal of the shareholders.
On the item number six of the agenda, we have the proposal of the delegation of faculties to subsidize the agreements of this. Then we have the report. We have some other points, 8.1 and 8.2, which are just for information. We are voting right now. We urge the shareholders to vote. If you haven't gone to vote at the end of the room, you have the place to do that. If you are doing that remotely, please do it as soon as possible on the platform. En este momento declaro concluido el. Now we finish with the voting of the proposals regarding the agenda by the shareholders and the representatives attending this meeting, both on-site and remotely. I want to say that they have been approved with the required majority by law.
Due to the technical reasons of holding this meeting here and also virtually, counting of the votes of shareholders, those who have done this on-site and remotely, these all results will be published on the website by five days after this meeting. Era la presidenta de Junta. We close this meeting. Thank you very much for your attendance. See you next year.