Active
This profile is actively maintainedActive
This profile is actively maintainedWebsite | http://www.caixabank.com |
Headquarters |
Avda Diagonal 621-629
08028 Barcelona
Spain
|
CEO/chair |
Gonzalo Gortázar CEO |
Supervisor | |
Ownership |
listed on Bolsa de Madrid
CriteriaCaixa (100% owned by La Caixa Banking Foundation) holds 30% of CaixaBank's shares. CaixaBank's complete shareholder structure can be accessed here. |
CaixaBank was founded in 1980, and is a large Spanish retail bank. The bank operates through three segments: banking and insurance, real estate activity, and investments. With the mergers and takeovers of Banca Cívica and Banco de Valencia, and the retail banking, wealth management and corporate banking businesses of Barclays in Spain, CaixaBank has extended its share of the Spanish financial market. CaixaBank signed the Equator Principles in March 2007.
In 2021 Bankia merged with CaixaBank to create a new entity but preservering the name of the latter.
CaixaBank's most important sustainability commitments can be found at the website sections listed below.
Links
CaixaBank is linked to a number of companies and projects that BankTrack considers controversial (so called Dodgy Deals), e.g. as a current or past financier or through an expression of interest. The profiles below provide more details on the nature of CaixaBank's link to these deals.
Caixabank does not operate a complaints or grievances mechanism for individuals or communities that might have been affected by the bank's finance. However, it is possible to lodge a complaint with the OECD National contact point (see OECD Watch guidance).
Caixabank is an Equator Principles signatory. While the Equator Principles have no official grievance mechanism, complaints relating to this bank's financing of Equator Principles projects can be filed through our own website www.equator-complaints.org.
This page evaluates CaixaBank's responses to instances of alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, raised by civil society organisations. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but covers selected impacts raised by BankTrack and other civil society partners since 2016. For the full scoring methodology, see here. For more information about BankTrack's evaluation of bank responses to human rights impacts, see the 2021 report "Actions speak louder: assessing bank responses to human rights violations".
Banks and Climate
The 2024 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that CaixaBank provided US$ 27.023 Billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2023. In 2023 only, CaixaBank provided US$ 1.986 Billion for oil, gas and coal companies expanding fossil fuels. Find further details on CaixaBank fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Partner organisation Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool (CPT) and the Oil and Gas Policy Tracker (OGPT). BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of CaixaBank’s fossil fuel policy below.
False Solutions Tracker
The purpose of the False Solutions Tracker is to give a clear overview of energy technologies that fall under banks' individual sustainable finance commitments. The tracker lists 11 energy technologies that are usually associated with the energy transition and the decarbonisation of the economy. These technologies are defined here and classified in three categories:
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Real solutions: Technologies that deliver on a Just Transition towards Energy Democracy. BankTrack considers these technologies as real solutions only if and when they do deliver Energy Democracy.
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Solutions under strict conditions: Energy technologies that could be real solutions if they deliver on a Just Transition towards Energy Democracy but that could also be false solutions. This is the case of hydrogen and hydropower. On one hand, fossil-free and green hydrogen could be a real solution under certain conditions. However, fossil-based hydrogen and nuclear hydrogen are always false solutions. On the other hand, hydropower lifespan extension could also be a real solution under strict conditions while hydropower expansion is a false solution.
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False solutions: Energy technologies that are not aligned with a just transition towards Energy Democracy.
For each one of the 11 energy technologies, the tracker indicates if it is included in bank's individual sustainable finance commitments:
For Real solutions:
- : Yes, the bank includes its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting.
- : Yes, the bank includes its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting, but under certain conditions. In this case, those conditions are mentioned in the "relevant policy document" section for each bank.
- : No, the bank does not include its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting.
- : It is unclear whether the bank includes or not its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting.
For solutions under strict conditions and for false solutions:
- : Yes, the bank includes its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting.
- : Yes, the bank includes its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting, but under certain conditions. In this case, those conditions are mentioned in the "relevant policy document" section for each bank.
- : No, the bank does not include its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting.
- : It is unclear whether the bank includes or not its finance towards this energy technology in its sustainable finance reporting.
Banks and Human Rights
BankTrack assessed CaixaBank in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 4.5 points out of 14 and was ranked as a follower. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.
Tracking the Net Zero Banking Alliance
CaixaBank is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker.
Banks and Steel
As part of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), La Caixa Group is required to set interim targets for 2030 for high emission priority sectors. For La Caixa Group, this includes its lending to the steel sector. You can see La Caixa Group’s iron and steel decarbonisation targets, and its progress towards meeting them in our NZBA steel targets compliance tracker:
Partner organisation Reclaim Finance’s 2023 report on metallurgical coal financing showed that La Caixa Group provided US$ 1.5 billion in loans and underwriting to developers of new metallurgical coal between 2016 and 2022. Find further details on La Caixa Group’s metallurgical coal financing and and how it compares to other large banks globally in the report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the metallurgical coal policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool. BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of La Caixa Group’s metallurgical coal policy below.