CaixaBank bankers and customers are in the spotlight of competition. March’s hiring of Gil Cano follows the departure of executives from the asset management company and the private bank in five months.
CaixaBank is in the spotlight of private banking and asset management in Spain. The sector looks to the bank led by Gonzalo Gortázar with the idea of attracting professionals, especially private bankers, and clients, following the departure of top executives from its private banking and investment fund businesses.
In less than five months, CaixaBank has lost the most visible faces of its wealth management business. First, in May of this year, the bank lost the CEO of its fund manager, CaixaBank Asset Management. Mapfre has hired Juan Bernal as the insurer’s new corporate director of investments.
Last week, CaixaBank announced the departure of Víctor Allende, who until then was in charge of the bank’s high-net-worth business. Allende has left the bank to lead the private banking unit in Spain of Banco Santander, CaixaBank’s main competitor in this segment.
And finally, yesterday, although at a lower level, Banca March hired the head of CaixaBank AM’s discretionary management business, to strengthen its activity. César Gil Cano, who led one of the priority legs of CaixaBank’s management company in recent years, has joined the Balearic bank to perform a similar role.
Organization
The three executives have left the bank, following the departure of Juan Antonio Alcaraz, former general manager of the entity in 2023, to whom, especially Allende and Bernal, they were closely linked professionally.
Under the strategy designed by Alcaraz, Allende and Bernal strengthened their private banking and wealth management businesses until they became the benchmark for the sector in Spain.
CaixaBank’s asset manager is the largest in Spain with US$99,297 million in assets, a long way behind its main rival, and its private banking rivals Santander as the firm with the largest assets in the sector, with more than US$159.979 billion from high-net-worth clients.
But, in addition to standing out in numbers, CaixaBank has the most innovative fund manager and private banking of the last decade in Spain.The bank has been a pioneer in developing the most reforming strategies in this business, which have since been replicated by their main competitors.
Over the past six years, CaixaBank has developed a discretionary investment fund portfolio management service; has developed the open architecture model for these financial products and has introduced in Spain the formula of explicit charging for financial advice to clients with high net worth, which is very common in Anglo-Saxon markets.
It has also created the first family office integrated within the bank to attract family groups with more than US$55.16 million.; and has responded to the demand of some high-net-worth clients to relocate their capital to a jurisdiction other than Spain, by opening a branch of the bank in Luxembourg.
More movements
This halo of innovation combined with the departures of the top executives of these businesses has placed the bank’s professionals in the crosshairs of its main rivals.who are analyzing the possibility of making signings to incorporate CaixaBank’s know-how in asset management.
In this way, there is now speculation in the sector that Allende, Bernal and Gil Cano may not be the last exits of CaixaBank in this business, but the resignations of top executives trigger a domino effect on other professionals in the division.
There are several executives from different private banks with a presence in Spain those who acknowledge that they are considering hiring within the entity.
CaixaBank is especially attentive to the movements that Victor Allende may make, who could take some of his former colleagues with him, at a time when Santander is very open to making signings from its competitors in order to grow in a business it considers a priority: private banking.
In addition to private bankers, CaixaBank’s high-net-worth clients are also in the crosshairs of its major rivals. In private banking, it is quite common for clients to move with their trusted bankers or at least move part of their capital to the new entity of their wealth advisor.
Answer
For now, CaixaBank has responded to the offensive launched by its competitors with a line of continuity in the strategy of private banking and fund management in recent years, which is based on internal promotions.
To replace Bernal, and ensure this continuity in the asset management company, Gortázar appointed Ana Martín de Santa Olalla at the head of CaixaBank AM, until then number two in the business and with extensive knowledge of the activity and the professionals in his charge.
In the private banking sector, the bank has appointed Belén Martín, who until now held the position of territorial director of CaixaBank in Castilla y León, to replace Allende. Martin has around 25 years of experience in the banking sector, but has no direct experience in the wealth management and private banking business.
