Shareholders Office

The Shareholders Office is a communication channel that passes on any suggestions and clarifies any queries that minority shareholders may have through direct and personal dialogue.

Most queries refer to issues such as the current share price or share history, dividend amounts and payment dates, the content of the corporate report and details on General Shareholders' Meetings. In order to respond to these queries, Bankinter publishes communiqués of interest for its shareholders on a regular basis.

The relationship with shareholders is based on the ‘Usted Primero’ (You First) project, the purpose of which is to notify shareholders, through physical and electronic means, of any relevant news on the company. The aim of this project is to ensure shareholders are the first to hear about a dividend payment and its amount, the quarterly results or the material facts that the Bank publishes with the CNMV (capital increases, changes in the Board, etc.).

The Shareholders Office is also entrusted with providing information on shareholder composition and any changes thereto, both internally and in relation to supervisory bodies, and ensuring adherence to the Securities Market Code of Conduct, which Bankinter employees must observe with regard to the Bank's actions.

Effort to adapt

In 2016 the main new development was the entry into force of the initial phase of the Reform of the Securities Clearing, Settlement and Registration System in Spain, in order to bring the post-trading processes into line with those of Europe. The change required a considerable effort at adaptation on the part of the Bank in order to ensure the continuity of the Shareholders' Register.

Accordingly, the Annual General Meeting, the Bank's maximum decision-making body, was held on 17 March 2016 with a quorum of 74.1%. This percentage maintains the upward trend of previous years and is significantly greater than the customary average among companies listed on the Ibex-35, which stood at 67% in 2015. The shareholders at the General Meeting approved the proposal submitted for the payment of a gross final dividend of 0,056 euros per share and, therefore, total gross shareholder remuneration for 2015 rose to 0,209 euros per share.

The number of shareholders continued to drop and stood at 57,750 in 2016, compared to the 61,386 shareholders in 2015. In 2016 there was a drop in the number of both Spanish and foreign minority shareholders and an increase in the number of foreign institutional shareholders.