Five years ago, the financial sector in the State suffered an earthquake: the announcement of the CaixaBank-Bankia banking mergerAt that time, the Vice President of the European Central Bank, Luis de Guindos, was already advocating that "banks should begin a new merger process quickly and urgently," while the then Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, asserted that in Spain "there was room for mergers." The merger gave rise to the first Spanish bank and came about after an agreement was reached between the central government—the majority shareholder in Bankia with 62% of the share capital—and the blue star bank—La Caixa, through its investment arm, Criteria, was the largest shareholder in CaixaBank.

If it goes ahead, BBVA's takeover of Banco Sabadell will not only be the largest banking merger in Spain after CaixaBank's takeover of Bankia in 2021, but also the first hostile takeover of the century in a sector where mergers are usually negotiated and supported by the government and the Bank of Spain. The last precedent for a hostile takeover was that of the former Banco de Bilbao (now BBVA) in Banesto in 1987, which failed.

"Person ties". This is how José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, president in pectore of CaixaBank, refers to ties that are not Bankia green. He longed to wear them, and is living strange days. Thursday, on his last day at Bankia, he wore two: the green one, to start the day at the entity he has presided over for nine years, and "the person one", to go to sign the last documents of the macro-merger by which he has become president of the largest bank in Spain. The confession took place on Friday on the 24th floor of Torre Kio, 611 kilometers from the operational headquarters of CaixaBank in Barcelona, in the first interview a president of the Catalan bank has offered to the ARA. This 67-year-old native of Bilbao is surprisingly charming when up close, and does not hide from the emotions he has recently lived: "I'll keep Thursday's tie, from the last day in Bankia".

CaixaBank is already the first financial institution in Spain. This is the headline that the Catalan company can boast of, since on Friday they have closed the absorption of Bankia with the registration of the operation in the commercial register of Valencia, after Tuesday the National Competition Market Commission (CNMC) authorized the integration. The result is a bank with 20 million customers, 25% of the Spanish market, 50,000 employees, 640,000 million in assets, a commercial network with a physical presence in 2,200 municipalities, and three headquarters: a social one in Valencia, and two operational ones in Barcelona and Madrid.

Bankia, the bank that became the symbol of the financial crisis in Spain, will disappear this Friday absorbed by CaixaBank. The entity, created twelve years ago by the merger of seven savings banks, closes a short history marked by scandals, crimes, nationalisation, prison for its first president and the multimillion-dollar losses suffered by its shareholders. Its shares will be traded this Friday for the last time on the Madrid stock exchange.