In terms of winners and losers from the Spanish banking crisis, CaixaBank falls into the former category. Before the crisis the bank trailed BBVA and Santander in terms of market shares in loans and deposits. Now, it is the largest bank in Spain by these measures, with a 15% share in loans, 14.4% share in deposits and 20% share in pensions, credit cards and life assurance. It has the largest branch network, with 5700 outlets, as well as a commanding 30% share of the online market.
All these achievements were completed in spite of running into similar kinds of heavy real estate and other losses as other Spanish banks during the crisis. Analysts say that good risk and credit management skills mitigated these losses, but the fact remains that the bank was able to use the crisis to its best advantage at a time when the outlook was highly uncertain.
