Bankia and CaixaBank have not yet finalized the distribution of positions and the organization of the structure in the new 'superbank' almost four months after announcing their integration.

The president of the Madrid bank,

José Ignacio Goirigolzarri

, explained that these processes are "very delicate" and are focused on managing well other legal and technological matters related to integration, for which he has asked for "understanding" during the last press conference held by the group before being absorbed by the Catalan entity.

The Basque banker did not want to comment on the potential timetable for defining this structure after reiterating that he was not going to comment on the organization.

However, the group is confident that the merger project will obtain regulatory authorizations in the coming weeks and can be closed at the legal level in the first quarter of the year.

For this, it is essential to obtain a 'green light' from the

National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC),

which has been carrying out a detailed study of the different business areas of the new one for two months.

Goirigolzarri considers that the regulator will not establish "restrictions" because, in his opinion, that the new entity has a market share of 25% in some products does not pose any problem of competition due to the entry of new technological groups in the sector.

Bankia has said goodbye to investors and shareholders with a 57% drop in profit, to 230 million, attributed to the impact of the coronavirus.

A large part of the drop is linked to the extraordinary provisions made by the group to cover the potential increase in defaults as a result of the economic crisis.

Many of the loans at risk are currently covered by default, but their maturity is approaching and this could lead to an increase in delinquencies.

The bank is optimistic about the economic recovery and has warned of a

"record and explosive" growth

in the formalization of mortgages during the last quarter of the year.

Added to the improvement in credit for home purchases is a 17% increase in the granting of loans to companies, driven by financial assistance plans endorsed by the ICO granted to tens of thousands of companies to avoid a liquidity crisis during the months of confinement.

The negative part is linked to consumer loans, which decreased by 53% in the year as a whole.

"The last quarter allows us to enter the merger process with strong inertia. We are maintaining the merger calendar, as we are not seeing anything special in terms of authorizations, they are on their normal course", explained the Chairman of Bankia .

Goirigolzarri has pointed out that there is "great uncertainty" about what will happen in 2021 and has warned of the "virulence of the third wave" and the impact it will have on the economy in the first quarter of the year.

To mitigate this blow, the Chairman of Bankia and the future of CaixaBank has marked "accelerating the vaccination process" as an urgent and priority, from a human point of view but also from an economic one.

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