• 'Our overriding objective, our focus, is the customer - to listen to and serve them'
  • 'Our goal over the coming years is to ensure consumers see Bankia as an approachable, straight-forward and transparent bank'
  • He highlighted that the bank 'has begun repaying the bailout, returning a total of €1.838 billion'
  • Bankia's chairman was speaking at the Spanish Wine Fair (FENAVIN) taking place in Ciudad Real

Today, celebrating his fifth year as Bankia chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri wanted to reflect on his time in office, highlighting the bank's current position and setting out its strategies for the years ahead.

'At the end of 2016, Bankia was the most efficient, solvent and profitable of Spain's six largest banks, with a business model capable of generating capital organically and distributing dividends to its shareholders,' Goirigolzarri said during his speech at the Spanish Wine Fair (FENAVIN) in Ciudad Real.

'Our goal for the bank over the coming years is to continue leading the way in terms of efficiency, profitability and solvency among the top six Spanish banks,' he added.

In this regard, the bank's chairman said 'our overriding objective, our focus, is the customer - to listen to and serve them'. 'Our goal over the coming years is to ensure consumers see Bankia as an approachable, straight-forward and transparent bank,' he explained.

Goirigolzarri believes this goal must be achieved in a number of ways from 'designing products we trust will be easy to understand, transparent and with no small print, to appropriately configuring our online channels and talking to our customers'.

All without overlooking the need to be a highly efficient bank 'because a long-lasting top-notch service cannot be achieved without excellent levels of efficiency'.

Unique in Europe

Reflecting on his five years at the helm, Goirigolzarri pointed out that Bankia 'is the only European bank to have achieved the objectives set out in its Restructuring Plan two years ahead of schedule'.

He pointed out that 'we have built a completely professional Board of Directors, with a level of corporate governance that external agents deem to be the best of any Spanish financial institution'.

He also explained that the bank has established 'a strict and unique code of values, which should be an example to follow because we must not accept any breaches thereof'.

He also reminded the audience that 'when we received the bailout we became a solvent bank, although that did not guarantee our future. There have been a lot of banks in Europe that failed after receiving state aid'.

Unlike these cases, Bankia's chairman highlighted that the bank 'has begun repaying the bailout, returning a total of €1.838 billion through the first three dividends in its history and the privatisation of 7.5% of the bank'.

Bankia SA published this content on 09 May 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 09 May 2017 12:35:29 UTC.

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