Cecabank Annual Report 2014

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10
Interview with the CEO
What do you consider to have
been the main milestones for
Cecabank since its founding in
November 2012, up until passing
the midpoint of its 2013-2016
Strategic Plan?
After establishing ourselves as
a wholesale bank, dedicated to
providing specialist financial
services to all financial institutions
and large corporations, we defined
our road map in a four-year
strategic plan.
I would like to highlight four
major milestones on this path
that have enabled us to achieve
our objectives:
• the organisation’s capacity for
adaptation, both to the new
institutional framework, and
particularly the new culture
entailed by its being a large
bank, starting out as a banking
association with over 80 years’
history, while maintaining and
building our solvency,
• and they way we have been
able to extend service excellence,
deriving from our commitment
to quality and continuous effort,
and the specialisation of our
professional staff and executives.
Thanks to this achievement, today
we are among the most solvent
institutions in the Spanish financial
system, and we have achieved
the balance between efficiency
and effectiveness that means
our customers perceive us as a
benchmark for service.
How do you judge the mix
between the three strategic lines
of treasury, securities services,
and banking services?
What our stakeholders value
about Cecabank, apart from its
good governance, solvency, and
excellence in financial service
delivery, is the way we balance our
value proposition, maintaining our
prudentially based risk profile.
In their latest reports the ratings
agencies acknowledged that
Cecabank has balanced its
income sources, thereby improving
its risk profile.
This assessment strengthens our
commitment to the three major
lines of service:
José María Méndez Álvarez-Cedrón
Securities Services
We aspire to consolidate our
leadership as an independent
depositary bank.
Treasury Management
The institution’s traditional
activity, very much focused on
fixed income, and government
debt in particular.
Banking Services
Outsourcing of retail
banks’ business processes,
associated with our position as
a credit institution.
What do you consider to have
been the main areas where
Cecabank has made progress in
terms of corporate governance?
Once we completed CECA-
Cecabank Group’s adaptation
to the new rules in Law
26/2013 on savings banks
and banking foundations, the
fundamental challenge was to
adapt the governance model.
This entailed first appointing a
Board of Directors, with a strong
contingent of professional board
members, all experts of recognised
prestige in the financial sector
and academia. After this initial
step, the Appointments and
Remuneration Committee,
the Audit Committee, and the
Risks and Solvency Committee
were set up, all with the same
emphasis on independence
and professionalism.
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