Press room

Coinciding with the institution’s General Assembly, at a press conference held yesterday by the Chairman of Caja Laboral, Juan Mª Otaegui and the Chief Executive Officer, Elías Atutxa, it was also stated that in spite of the change in the economic situation and the difficulties envisaged, the indications are that there will growth of 14% for the institution this year, which is similar to last year.

Caja Laboral surmises that the change in cycle in the property sector will have a significant impact, mainly on residential housing. This will have repercussions on mortgage loans, which will increase at a rate of no more than 10% this year, compared to a figure of 20% in previous years. In this context, consumer loans will increase at a slower rate, of around 6%.

Caja Laboral is confident that the main increases this year will take place in the business segment, where it has the solid backing of the experience built up with the Co-operative enterprises of the Mondragon Corporation. This is a field in which it plans to offer a more personalised service and forecasts an increase of 17%, similar to last year.

Caja Laboral will also continue to expand outside its traditional area, with the opening of 16 new branches, of which 2 will be in the province of Bizkaia and the other 14 in the areas targeted for expansion: 8 in Madrid and the rest in Burgos, Cantabria and Asturias.

As far as 2007 is concerned, Caja Laboral posted a turnover of 30,877 million euros, 14.2% up on 2006 with profits rising by 19%. It also opened 17 branches, of which 14 were in the areas targeted for expansion: 5 in Asturias, 4 in Madrid and 1 in Valladolid, Zaragoza, Cantabria and Burgos. By the end of the year there were 389 branches, of which 34% were located in the areas targeted for expansion, which accounted for 25% of the institution’s deposits as a whole.

http://www.cajalaboral.com