Represent, defend and disseminate the interests of its members, providing them with advice and support to promote financial inclusion and access to credit. This is how CECA defines itself, an organisation in which commitment to social responsibility is a core element for the nine banks that are currently members.
In the Middle Ages, a mint (ceca) was used to designate the place where coins were cast and minted. Several centuries later, that same word is used to name an association, CECA, which represents different credit institutions and banking foundations with almost 70,000 employees and assets of some €900 billion.
CECA's main mission is to defend the interests of its member entities, providing them with advice and support in their efforts to offer services that promote financial inclusion and access to credit. To achieve this, the key pillar guiding its initiatives is sustainability, actively promoting social work and action as well as financial education.
CECA is an active member of two of the main international benchmark associations for the retail banking model: European Savings Banks Group (ESBG) and World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI). In fact, it fully identifies with the latter's philosophy, based on the promotion of the 3Rs: Retail, for the financing of households and SMEs; Responsible, which means the active defence of the Obra Social; and Rooted, in other words, committed to the territories where it is present.
An active institutional role
One need only look at some of the names on CECA's governing body to gauge its importance within the financial system. Isidro Fainé, CaixaBank's leading executive until 2016 and current Chairman of Criteria Caixa and Fundación Bancaria La Caixa, is the Chairman of the association. Among the vice-chairmen, we find such well-known names as José Ignacio Gorigolzarri, Chairman of CaixaBank and of BFA Tenedora de Acciones; Braulio Medel, former Chairman of Unicaja Banco; or Gregorio Villalabeitia, Chairman of Kutxabank.
CECA plays a very active role through various institutional representation forums with the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the Spanish Tax Agency, the Social Security, the Spanish Employment Service (SEPE), the Official Credit Institute (ICO), the General Council of the Judiciary and various ministries. At industry level, it is present in organisations such as the Economic and Social Council and the CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations), as well as in other financial industry groups such as the AEB (Spanish Banking Association) and the UNACC (National Union of Credit Cooperatives).
Four key pillars
CECA's activity is based on four pillars: institutional representation, monitoring and analysis of both the economy and the regulatory changes affecting it, dissemination and promotion of social investment, and defence of its member entities bound by the sector-specific collective bargaining agreement. With this strategic poker in mind, CECA is engaged, among other initiatives, in the production of a huge amount of documents. For example, it publishes a monthly Economic and Financial Report, where, together with an analysis of the economic situation and the markets, it monitors the business variables of deposit institutions. This document is complemented each quarter by the sector's Results Report, which details the evolution of the aggregate results of the member entities. Monographic analyses are also published, as well as financial sector statistics or flashes compiling accounting information.
