Investor relations

The main goal of the Investor Relations Department is to provide information on the performance of the Bank's various businesses and activities, as well as its current and future strategy, always in accordance with the principles of equality, fluidity and transparency required by regulators. One of the main tools for providing investors with information are the quarterly online communications carried out in full by teleconference or webcast in January, April, July and October, where the Group presents its results. Over one hundred analysts and institutional investors usually connect to these communications in real time from around the world.

The other cornerstone of the Investor Relations Department's activities is direct contact with institutional investors, which takes place primarily within the framework of the numerous international conferences, at which a number of institutional investors, portfolio managers, analysts, private bankers, etc. meet and at which Bankinter usually has a presence, held by the main stock market and investment banking companies of various countries, usually the United States, Canada and Europe. In addition, the Investor Relations Department welcomes more than three hundred qualified investors each year, either in individual sessions or in small groups organised by brokers at the Bank's headquarters on Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid.

Another of the department's tasks things to organise several roadshows to visit investors or potential investors in various financial capitals around the world, such as New York, London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Zurich, Geneva or Warsaw. The topics that most interest attendees include the performance of the Bank's various businesses and activities, regulatory framework, the situation of the sector and the economic and political outlook for Spain. This last topic captured the attention of several institutional investors in 2016, given the political instability experienced during the year.

At 2016 year-end, 46.1% of the Bank's shares were in the hands of non-resident investors, the majority of which are institutional investors, compared to the 44.2% recorded in 2015. The growing participation of foreign investors in the shareholder structure is an incentive to explore new markets (such as Asia, the Middle East or Latin America) and expand the geographical shareholder base.

The sustainability factor

The growing sensitivity of international investors to aspects other than financial matters (such as good corporate governance, environmental protection or respecting social issues) has led the department to forge closer relationships with various agencies that specialise in the sustainability factor and that measure Bankinter by criteria of this nature. These agencies, as well as proxy advisors (consulting firms that advise institutional investors on the decisions made at shareholders' meetings), draw up rankings, reports and indices, such as the FTSE4Good Index, in which Bankinter tends to have a presence in order to meet investors' demands, which require making decisions based on sustainability standards.

In addition, in 2016 various roadshows were carried out with institutions interested in results that are not strictly economic or financial in nature.