Ancestry
Caja de Barcelona
At the time of the 1990 merger, the Caja de Barcelona was the third largest savings bank in Spain.[4]
Caja de Pensiones
The Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez was formed in 1904 in Catalonia by Francesc Moragas, and opened to the public in 1905, expanding to the Balearic Islands in 1915.[4] It merged with the Caja de Ahorros del Empordà in 1915, taking on the name "Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez y Ahorros".[4]
The Obra Social was formally created in 1918 to oversee the Caja's social work.[4]
By 1930, the Caja had been reformed 15 times by mergers with other organizations; the first outside of Catalonia was the Caja Rural para la Federación Católico-Agraria de Ibiza in 1930.[4]
In 1969, the Caja de Pensiones became the first in Europe to begin real-time computerized tele-processing of transactions, allowing customers to do banking at any branch at will.[4]
In the late 1980s, the Caja de Pensiones, by then known commonly known as "La Caixa", began work to expand outside of its usual territory: In 1986 it formed GrupCaixa to get around then-restrictive geographic limitations in the law; GrupCaixa was folded back into La Caixa in 1989 when the limitations were removed.[4]
By the time of the 1990 merger, La Caixa was already the largest savings bank in Spain.[4]
Caja de Barcelona
At the time of the 1990 merger, the Caja de Barcelona was the third largest savings bank in Spain.[4]
Caja de Pensiones
The Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez was formed in 1904 in Catalonia by Francesc Moragas, and opened to the public in 1905, expanding to the Balearic Islands in 1915.[4] It merged with the Caja de Ahorros del Empordà in 1915, taking on the name "Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez y Ahorros".[4]
The Obra Social was formally created in 1918 to oversee the Caja's social work.[4]
By 1930, the Caja had been reformed 15 times by mergers with other organizations; the first outside of Catalonia was the Caja Rural para la Federación Católico-Agraria de Ibiza in 1930.[4]
In 1969, the Caja de Pensiones became the first in Europe to begin real-time computerized tele-processing of transactions, allowing customers to do banking at any branch at will.[4]
1990 organization
1990, the Caja de Barcelona, and La Caixa, also formerly called the Caja de Pensiones, merged to form the Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona, which itself continued the name "La Caixa".[4]
In 1995, La Caixa opened the first international representative offices in Porto, Portugal and Brussels, Belgium.
In January 2008, La Caixa bought part of Morgan Stanley's private banking business in Spain for almost 600 million euros and in 2010, the group acquired Caixa Girona, being one of the three savings bank integration operations that did not require assistance from the FROB (Fund for the orderly restructuring of the banking sector).
On 29 January 2008, Criteria CaixaCorp was included in IBEX 35.[5] In addition, La Caixa acquired 14.91% of Bank of East Asia's capital.
It has a portfolio of industrial holdings in companies in the infrastructure, energy and communications sectors, among others.[6]
Segregation of the banking business at CaixaBank and restructuring of the group
On 27 January 2011, within the context of the restructuring of the financial system in Spain, the board of directors of La Caixa unveiled a complete reorganization of the group. The savings bank would transfer its banking business (office network, client portfolio, assets, and bank capital) entirely to a subsidiary in which the majority of shares are held by the same savings bank (74%),[7] which adopted the name of CaixaBank, and was formerly known as Criteria CaixaCorp.
La Caixa ceased to conduct retail banking business, and its only activity was limited to the maintenance of the La Caixa Social Work Project. Although the savings bank no longer operates financially, CaixaBank decided, in its offices and in the commercial relationship with its customers, to use the commercial pseudonym of La Caixa, leaving the brand "CaixaBank" solely for institutional use.
At the same time, in July 2011, another subsidiary of the group was created, in this case 100% owned by La Caixa, called Criteria CaixaHolding, which would not list on the stock exchange and would bring together the less attractive stocks such as real estate services (Servihabitat), industrial holdings (Gas Natural Fenosa and Abertis) and PortAventura World.
On 10 April 2014 it was announced that its transformation into a banking foundation would be decided at the ordinary general meeting on May 22 to comply with the Savings Banks and Banking Foundations Law, which requires savings banks with indirect banking activity to be liquidated and transformed into foundations, responsible for managing social work projects. This would lead to a process of reorganization within the group, which would involve, on the one hand, the dissolution and liquidation of the La Caixa Foundation and, on the other hand, the transfer to Criteria CaixaHolding (100% of La Caixa) of the participation in CaixaBank.[11]
On 22 May 2014, the general assembly of La Caixa approved its transformation into a banking foundation.[12]
The foundation was established on 17 June 2014. As a result, on the one hand, the dissolution and liquidation of the La Caixa Foundation would occur, with the overall transfer of its assets and liabilities in favour of the La Caixa Banking Foundation, and, on the other hand, the transfer in favour of Criteria CaixaHolding of the participation of the Caixa at CaixaBank, so that the banking foundation would go on to hold its stake in CaixaBank through
