The president of CaixaBank, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, has intervened this morning in the controversy over the lack of remuneration of deposits, ensuring that "what happens in the future is what the client says". He spoke these words at the APIE seminar at the UIMP in Santander the day after the Vice President for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, urged the entire sector to pass on the benefits of the rate hike to their clients with an improvement in the remuneration.
Goirigolzarri has recognized in his speech that what is paid for deposits in Spain is below the whole of the European Union. The president of CaixaBank explained that when rates were negative, companies were charged for deposits and individuals were not. And now that rates are recovering, it's just the other way around.
In his opinion, the bank's deposit strategy "should not affect the reputation of the sector" because there are alternative products with good returns. According to Goirigolzarri, deposits are not a good savings strategy in the medium and long term since there are other more beneficial formulas.
The president of the bank has assured that the three main challenges that the financial sector has to face are the change in customer habits together with the evolution of technology, reputation and improved profitability.
On the situation of the Spanish economy, he stated that "it is showing much greater strength than we anticipated last year" and has pointed out its main weaknesses are "productivity and the imbalance of public accounts".
