CaixaBank S.A.

Powerful retail banking franchise in Spain. Lower credit risk profile than the Spanish banking system average. Balanced funding structure and limited reliance on wholesale funding. Business concentration in Spain, which still faces higher economic risks than peers. Operating performance remains modest. Significant exposure to market risk through its large equity portfolio. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' stable outlook on CaixaBank S.A. indicates that, although we expect the bank's business and financial profiles to gradually benefit from Spain's more favorable economic environment, improvements are unlikely to be material enough to warrant an upgrade. Furthermore, even if our assessment of the bank's stand-alone credit profile (SACP) were to improve--which we consider unlikely at this time--the ratings would still be constrained by the

...Outlook: Stable Standard & Poor's Ratings Services' stable outlook on CaixaBank S.A. indicates that, although we expect the bank's business and financial profiles to gradually benefit from Spain's more favorable economic environment, improvements are unlikely to be material enough to warrant an upgrade. Furthermore, even if our assessment of the bank's stand-alone credit profile (SACP) were to improve--which we consider unlikely at this time--the ratings would still be constrained by the sovereign rating on Spain, where the bulk of CaixaBank's activity is concentrated. We expect the integration of the former Barclays Bank S.A.U. into the CaixaBank group to proceed smoothly. We anticipate that CaixaBank's profitability will gradually strengthen, supported by higher revenues, cost-efficiency measures, and lower credit impairments. As a result, we expect our risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio for CaixaBank to remain at a level consistent with our "moderate" assessment at year-end 2016 (between...

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