The Chief Executive Officer of Bankinter foresees a highly positive 2015 during which the bank will continue to improve in terms of efficiency and size.

The Chief Executive Officer of Bankinter, María Dolores Dancausa, today confirmed at the General Shareholders Meeting that last year's results were "the best in the bank's history" owing to their recurrence and the fact that they were achieved "without extraordinary or one-off transactions that would not be easily repeated". This business sustainability, together with growth in efficiency, contained default and improvements in economic activity, led her to forecast a "clearly positive" 2015.

She insisted that the four pillars on which the Group's accounts have been built (Business Banking, Línea Directa, Private Banking and Consumer Financing) "are in very good health and everything points to the growth rates of recent years being maintained". In addition to the above, in 2015 Dancausa will be focusing on businesses such as International Activities and Personal Banking, as well as resorting to investments similar to those made at the Luxembourg office or on Mercavalor.

Bankinter’s CEO dedicated a good part of her speech to the main milestones achieved by the bank, which this year completes 50 years in operation. She underlined Bankinter's pioneering approach and leadership in areas that have changed the financial business in recent years, such as digital banking and the use of mobile technologies by clients.

Looking to the future and based on innovation as the tool for approaching changes in the sector, Dancausa expressed her conviction that "the most unattainable ambitions can now be attained", and, accordingly, the bank is working to "achieve a significantly larger dimension, surprising levels of efficiency and to rise as an example for both the financial sector and the business world".

The bank once again makes a cash pay-out of 50%.

During his turn to take the floor, the Chairman of Bankinter, Pedro Guerrero, spoke of Bankinter's privileged position for seizing the business opportunities brought about by the financial recovery and the injection of liquidity by the European Central Bank, and reiterated the institution's positive outlook for growth in 2015, as highlighted by the Chief Executive Officer.

According to Pedro Guerrero, the stability of the balance sheet, the increase in business with clients and the rise in rating to investment grade explain "the highly positive progress made on the stock exchange", up 30%, and the fact that this is the second bank to have risen most in value in Europe, and is once again the top Spanish bank among those listed on the Ibex 35.

Adding to the above, the President of Bankinter pointed out that payments to shareholders are up 152% on 2013 thanks to improvements in profits and the increase in the cash pay-out at 50%, in excess of the previous limitation to dividends applied by the Bank of Spain. "This is a prudent policy that helps protect capital and allows the bank to maintain an adequate level of solvency, even in adverse economic scenarios, as shown in the recent stress tests", he said.

As well as the approval of dividends for the year, Bankinter’s General Shareholders Meeting adopted all the resolutions on the agenda. These included the approval of the annual accounts, the appointment of Rosa García and the ratification of the appointment of María Teresa Pulido as independent external directors, as well as the re-election of María Dolores Dancausa as Chief Executive Officer. With these appointments, Bankinter has fulfilled the recommendations of the new Code of Good Governance approved by the CNMV in February and does so five years early. This means that 30% of the company's directors are women and at least half of the members on the Board of Directors are independent.