• He discards participating in a new round of financial mergers: "We don't consider it. Merging for merging makes no sense."

The CEO of Bankinter, María Dolores Dancausa, has cleared the possibility of a merger that affects the bank in a new scenario of financial consolidation. "They have not invited us or we plan to merge with any entity. Merging by merging does not make much sense, these operations must provide value," said the first executive of the group to highlight that its goal is to "solid and sustainable" organic growth .

Dancausa has also criticized isolated tax increases by the new government and has warned of the consequences of closing the sicavs. "I do not like tax increases if they do not respond to a clear fiscal policy plan. They paralyze growth and are bread for today and hunger for tomorrow," he said during the presentation of the group's results for the year 2019.

From Spain to Luxembourg

In relation to the sicavs, the CEO of Bankinter believes that the fact that their competencies pass to the Tax Agency "is not good news" and has announced that they have already met with their clients to present other investment alternatives. "As the president of the CNMV has said, we must be careful to end the sicavs because of the consequences it has. We must be cautious," he said.

Among these alternatives is the investment in the Luxembourg subsidiary, where the group landed in 2012 with the purchase of a bank file. "We have met with our clients and we have raised Luxembourg as a possibility, but there are others," Dancausa said.

The Luxembourg subsidiary entered profit in 2018 and last year recorded a strong growth of 300 million euros in its managed assets, as detailed by the entity. The group has insisted that despite the current uncertainty about this investment vehicle, in 2019 it continued to grow with a total of managed funds of 4.8 billion euros within its private banking division.

The Government agreement signed by PSOE and advances that both formations "exercise greater control over the sicav" by transferring the inspection powers to the Tax Agency. "Likewise, additional requirements will be established for the application by the reduced tax rate sicav tending to ensure its character as a collective investment instrument, for example, by establishing a capital concentration cap held by the same investor (including the participation of natural persons or related legal) ", reads the text.

Dancausa has also referred to the struggle of economic models in the current Government and has warned that this creates uncertainty for investors, so he has asked President Pedro Sánchez for a definition "clear and as soon as possible". "In the Government there are very trained people and others who want to imitate political and economic models that are already outdated in the Western world. The reality is that the model struggle exists, and we are in that impasse because we do not know which one will be imposed and determine the country's policy, "he explained.

Strong defense of Jaime Botín

The head of Bankinter has also come out in defense of the main shareholder of the group and former president, Jaime Botín, convicted of trying to get a Picasso out of Spain in 2015. "We are absolutely convinced of his innocence, without ambiguity. It is a sentence that is not firm They are going to win the resources and revoke the sentence. The truth always ends up coming to light, "he said.

Bankinter continues to grow and scratch market share to other financial institutions in a difficult context for the sector due to low interest rates in Europe. The entity managed to increase its profit by 4.6%, driven by the integration of EVO Bank and Avantcard, to 551 million euros. This figure represents a new historical record for the group and the seventh consecutive year of increases. Not counting the extraordinary ones, the profit before taxes would have grown 2.4%.

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