Chair
María Dolores Dancausa Treviño
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María Dolores Dancausa was born in Burgos, is married and has three children. Since March 2024 she has held the position of non-executive Chair of Bankinter, one of Spain's leading financial institutions, having previously held the position of Chief Executive Officer since October 2010. A graduate in Law from Colegio Universitario San Pablo CEU, she has completed several Management Programmes at Harvard Business School, an AMP (Advance Management Programme) at INSEAD Business School (Fontainebleau) and a Master's Degree in Human Resources and Business Strategy at the Euroforum-INSEAD University Institute (Madrid).
Dancausa has spent his entire professional career in the financial and insurance sector, first at Banco Exterior and later at the Bankinter Group. With the creation of Línea Directa Aseguradora in 1994, she was appointed Secretary General and Secretary of the Board until 2008, when she became CEO of the company. During this period, she helped to consolidate the company and position it as the fifth largest motor insurer in Spain.
After her appointment as CEO of Bankinter at the end of 2010, she continued to sit on the Board of Directors of Línea Directa until 2021, when the company was floated on the stock exchange. During her time as CEO of Bankinter, she has also been Chair of the Board of various Group companies, such as EVO Banco, Bankinter Consumer Finance, Avantcard DAC, Bankinter Global Services, and Bankinter Investment (in the latter she remains a member of the Board). From 2013 to 2018, she was also an independent director of the British firm Esure, one of the UK's leading insurers.
Currently, since June 2021, she has been an Independent External Director of Acciona and Chair of its Appointments and Remuneration Committee, and since April 2024, she has also been an Independent External Director of the Spanish multinational Puig, as well as a member of its Audit Committee. In addition, she is a Trustee of the Bankinter Foundation for Innovation in Technology and a Trustee of the Princess of Girona Foundation.
Under his management, Bankinter has been confirmed as one of the healthiest and most solvent institutions in Europe, with a series of indicators (profits, assets, lending, capital and efficiency) that have continued to improve throughout the crisis period. According to the European Banking Authority's 2023 stress tests, Bankinter is the best Spanish bank and fifth out of 100 European banks. The Bank has also consolidated its position as one of the most sustainable banks in the world, forming part, for the sixth year running, of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World, the most prestigious international index in the field of sustainability.
Acknowledgements
María Dolores Dancausa has received several awards in recognition of her career. Among them, she was named by Forbes magazine as one of the most influential figures and one of the best CEOs in Spain. In 2013 she was awarded for the first time the prize for best CEO of the year, and in 2021 she was awarded it again. In addition, in recent years she has climbed positions in the MERCO ranking of the 100 business leaders with the best reputation in Spain, currently occupying the sixth position on the list. Dancausa entered this ranking more than ten years ago and has been consolidating her position.
Dancausa was awarded in 2011 by the magazine Ejecutivos for her excellent professional career. In 2012 she was awarded the Most Relevant Personality of the Year at the Economy Night and, this same year, the newspaper Expansión awarded her the Emprendedores & Empleo Award for Best CEO of the Year. María Dolores Dancausa has received the EDA Award for Executive of the Year, the Ecofin Financial Award of the Year in 2013 and the Executive of the Year Award from the magazine Emprendedores in 2014. She is the first person to receive three awards in the "Tintero" awards, granted by the APIE, which recognise her transparency in the media, following her accésits in 2011 and 2017, having received the last one during 2023. In 2018, she received the award for Best Iberian Manager of the Year from the Portuguese-Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Financial Excellence Award for Professional Career from the IEF in recognition of her career in the financial sector. In November of the same year Computerworld awarded her the CEO of the Year Award for having been able to combine the promotion of technology with efficiency and effectiveness in the business, and in January 2020 the Madrid Chamber of Commerce recognised María Dolores Dancausa as a Woman Leader Award 2020 for her career of achievement and her great work at the head of Bankinter. In 2023 she was recognised as 'Businesswoman of the Year' in the Financial Sector category at the European CEO Awards 2023, organised by the specialist magazine European CEO. And in 2024 she received one of the Puentia Con Marca Propia Awards, which recognise leadership in organisations and civil society.
In recent years, Bankinter has stood out for its financial results and for strong growth in all lines of business. The Bank closed the financial year 2023 with a record recurring profit in its history, with all business lines growing at a good pace, which has enabled the Bank to continue to expand its market share in the customer segments and countries in which it operates. At the end of 2023, the Bank maintained its leadership among listed banks in terms of profitability, efficiency and asset quality, as well as its strengthened solvency, which continued to be well above the ECB's regulatory requirements.
Bankinter is the fifth largest bank in the Spanish financial system, the fifth largest Spanish bank in terms of market capitalisation and profits, and the leading bank in terms of profitability (ROE) and asset quality. Bankinter bases its strategy on different diversified and complementary lines of business, and has a presence in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Luxembourg.