Boards of BBK, Kutxa and Vital banks approve creation of Kutxa Bank

The Boards of Directors at Basque savings banks BBK, Caja Vital and Kutxa have declared their endorsement of a upcoming cold merger, which will see the creation of a new bank, Kutxa Bank.

The Presidents of the three banks met on Friday morning with a view to reaching an agreement regarding the participation of each of the financial institutions in the new bank. Once the merger takes place, Biscayan bank BBK will own 57% of Kutxa Bank, Gipuzkoa''s Kutxa 32% and Alava''s Caja Vital, 11%.

Kutxa Bank S.A. will have its official headquarters in Bilbao, while each organisation will continue to run its own provincial banks in their respective territories (Biscay, Gipuzkoa and Alava).

The new bank resulting from the upcoming cold merger will be the fourth largest savings bank and the eighth biggest financial institution in Spain in terms of active shares (worth 75,091 million euros).

The Board of Directors of the newly-merged bank will be made up of twenty people: Twelve from BBK, 6 from Kutxa and 2 from Caja Vital.

The President of the new bank will come from BBK, the first Vice-president from Kutxa and the second Vice-president from Caja Vital.

The new bank will have a total of 1,300 offices and 9,000 employees. It is also forecast to make a saving of 100m euros in synergies.

The approved agreement will need to be officially passed by the respective boards of each bank in September this year.