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Cecabank Report 2018
Letter from the CEO
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2018, perseverance and innovation in our intention to add value to the
Spanish banking sector.
2018 has been a very important year for Cecabank,
for several reasons. Firstly, due to being midway through our second 2017-
2020 Strategic Plan. At this point of the Plan, the Committee has conducted
a comprehensive assessment of the progress and it has planned the efforts
required to reach the intended objective.
Secondly, for implementing it in a challenging context, with an unstable
economic and political environment and, particularly, a scenario of low
interest rates and highly volatile markets. This situation has influenced
negatively our net interest margin and the evolution of pension and
investment funds, which have closed the year with a negative growth, and
has had an effect on our Securities Services fees and commissions.
Thirdly, and equally relevant, due to a change in the entity's corporate
government with the appointment of a new Chairman.
In 2018, in such a complicated year, Cecabank has again demonstrated its
intention to add value to the Spanish banking sector by obtaining a net profit
of 64 million euros. An extraordinarily positive figure considering the context.
The reason behind this is that Cecabank continues to transform itself to
offer better banking solutions, thanks to the talent of our employees and the
clients' trust.
Innovation, a key point in our strategic plan.
At Cecabank, we believe
that only by continuously improving our day-to-day we can provide the
best service in the lines of business that are the heart of the organisation:
Securities Services, Treasury Management, Payments and Digital Solutions.
As a result, at the end of 2018 we reached the conclusion that we had
to implement a global transformation plan in the entity, with the aim of
becoming swifter in meeting our clients' demand, reducing the time-to-
market. Ultimately, the idea is to evolve towards a new corporate culture,
for which we have launched ckbeSMART project.
With regard to Innovation, we must take into account that Interactive Services
continues consolidating the ck-Lab project, with the aim of promoting the
digital transformation of the organisation and the financial sector. To that
end, in January of this year we organised an event called “The future of Open
Banking”, which is aimed at banks and fintechs and to which more than 150
professionals attended.
Furthermore, we have established the first Blockchain consortium (comprising
8 institutions and led by Cecabank) in the Spanish financial sector, Niuron,
which this year has developed a platform to quickly and securely verify the
identity of a person when registering as a banking client.
At Cecabank, in addition to analysing potential growth opportunities that
will help us scale up, we work towards promoting incremental initiatives in
our business. The intention is to identify new levers linked to innovation.
With this aim in mind, we have designed and launched the Inizia project,
which incorporates an investment policy designed to help technological
startups advance.
José María Méndez
Álvarez-Cedrón