Sound retail banking franchise in Spain. Better credit risk profile than domestic peers. Balanced funding structure and contained reliance on wholesale financing. Concentration in Spain. Still-poor operating performance. Significant exposure to market risk through its large equity portfolio. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' outlook on Spain-based Caixabank S.A. is stable, reflecting our belief that Caixabank should be able to absorb the impact of still-high credit impairments while posting positive bottom-line performance. This, combined with strong deleveraging and additional actions recently undertaken by the bank to enhance its solvency, should allow Caixabank to continue strengthening its capitalization in coming quarters. We also believe that Caixabank's credit quality will remain better than the system average, in line with its track record of
