CaixaBank SA : CaixaBank wins the award for world’s most innovative bank at the 2013 Global Banking Innovation Awards

Today in Denver (USA) CaixaBank was awarded the prize for the world's most innovative bank at the 2013 Global Banking Innovation Awards. These annual awards celebrate the world's most innovative banks and are organised by the Bank Administration Institute (BAI) and Finacle. CaixaBank, which is overseen by Chairman Isidro Fainé and CEO Juan María Nin, has won the most innovative bank award twice in the last three years, having also won in 2011.

According to Juan María Nin, CEO of CaixaBank, the award given by BAI and Finacle recognises the bank's particular approach to innovation: "CaixaBank uses technology as a strategic means of consistently improving service quality. Being leaders in innovation allows us to provide our customers with the best possible value proposition and further consolidate our leading position in the Spanish market".

As well as winning the title of world's most innovative bank, CaixaBank won the award for best innovation in products and services for its SegurCaixa Auto mobile application, which helps customers manage motor insurance. This pioneering application features geolocation services to help users in the event of an accident, allowing for improved communications with nearby garages and helping them to send assistance if required. The bank won the award in a tie with the Korean bank HanaBank.

Just six banks worldwide were honoured at the 2013 Global Banking Innovation Awards 2013: As well as CaixaBank and HanaBank, the panel of judges, comprised of international experts in finance and technology, distinguished Standard Bank, Alior Bank, Zuno and Jibun Bank Corporation. This year a total of 200 banks from 30 countries were in contention for the awards.

This is the second time that BAI and Finacle have honoured CaixaBank as the world's most innovative bank. The bank first won in this category, which is the main award at the Global Banking Innovation Awards, in 2011.

CaixaBank, leader in innovation

CaixaBank is currently Spain's leading bank in terms of innovation and technology, and one of the most prominent innovators worldwide.

The bank leads the electronic banking market in Spain, with more than 12.5 million cards issued and more than 200,000 merchant banking customers. With around 10,000 terminals nationwide, CaixaBank operates Spain's largest network of ATMs, which has benefitted from some of its most cutting-edge innovation. For example, CaixaBank was the world's first bank to incorporate contactless technology into ATMs, thus making its terminals more accessible and faster to operate.

CaixaBank is also the leader in online banking, with 9.4 million customers using its Línea Abierta service. The bank's online banking site, which attracts 3.3 million unique visitors each month, is currently the leading website in the banking sector by traffic numbers and the ninth in all of Spain by page visits, according to Comscore figures.

In mobile banking, "la Caixa", the leading operator in this sector, has more than 3.6 million customers who operate their accounts and contracts via tablets or mobile devices. Its range of mobile applications, with more than 70 available to customers from the leading app stores and the bank's own CaixaMóvil Store, have been downloaded more than five million times.

As well as having more customers than any of its competitors, CaixaBank is also the market leader in terms of service quality. For the third consecutive year the bank has topped the AQMetrix rankings, which measures aspects of banks' web and mobile channels, such as availability, how fast users can perform transactions, the range of products and services on offer and customer service. The consultancy firm Forrester also identified CaixaBank as the best mobile banking service operator and the second best worldwide, according to its latest Mobile Banking Functionality Rankings.

International recognition for CaixaBank

This latest award follows other recent prestigious recognition for CaixaBank, such as being named "Global Innovator Winner" by Efma and Accenture, and "Best Retail Bank for Technology Innovation" by Euromoney for the bank's global innovation strategy.

The U.S. magazine Global Finance also honoured CaixaBank with its award for "Best Internet Bank in Spain", in recognition of its approach to innovation as a means of providing quality service to customers.

CaixaBank has also won international awards for innovation in specific business areas, such as the award from The Banker magazine for technological developments to improve sustainability and reduce energy consumption at data processing centres, or the Private Banker International magazine award for "most innovative business model".