Unicaja Banco and SANTALUCÍA signed today the extension of their bancassurance agreement for the exclusive marketing of Life Risk, Life Savings, Accident and Pension Plan Insurance. With this step, once all the legal and regulatory requirements have been met, the agreement between the two entities announced last May is completed.
The transaction represents the extension of the alliance, which started in 2017, to the Liberbank network incorporated into Unicaja Banco following the merger of both entities, and includes the acquisition by SANTALUCÍA of 50% of the share capital of CCM Vida y Pensiones, and 50% of the share capital of Liberbank Vida y Pensiones, with Unicaja Banco holding the remaining 50%, as in Unicorp Vida y Pensiones, the joint venture on which the joint business has been developed for the past five years.
The agreement between Unicaja Banco and SANTALUCÍA consolidates SANTALUCÍA's leadership position in the Life and Pensions business and opens up new opportunities in the banking channel.
For Unicaja Banco, this agreement with one of the country's leading insurance groups allows it to provide added value and give continuity to the strengthening of the life insurance and pension plan distribution business, one of the lines included in its 2022-24 Strategic Plan.
Unicaja Banco, following its merger with Liberbank, has become the fifth largest Spanish bank in terms of asset volume. Its broad geographic presence gives the alliance greater capillarity and commercial distribution reach, providing an important customer base on which to continue growing. This alliance expands SANTALUCÍA's presence in Unicaja Banco's distribution channels, with a network of close to a thousand branches, which join the insurance company's 400 points of sale and the more than 1,000 brokerages with which it works.
According to Unicaja Banco’s representatives at the signing of the agreement, Vicente Orti, Director General of General and Technical Secretariat, and Jesús Ruano, Director General Attached to the CEO and Corporate Development, Investees, Recoveries and Non-Core Asset Management: ‘We value the agreement very positively, as it allows us to continue with the successful development of the life and pensions business, under the experience and specialization of SANTALUCÍA, and to continue responding to the needs of our customers through innovative and high value products and services, which complement the traditional banking offer and with high growth potential, which also allows us to advance in the achievement of our strategic plan’.
In the words of Rodrigo Fernández-Avello, Director General of Life and Pension Business at SANTALUCÍA: ‘Unicaja Banco and SANTALUCÍA are benchmark institutions in our respective markets. The agreement brings complementarity and synergies to the strategies of both companies. With all this, the two entities reinforce the solid and fruitful alliance we have maintained since 2017 and together we will continue to work for the sustainable development of our joint business’.
About SANTALUCÍA
SANTALUCÍA, a comprehensive insurance company with 100 years of history, is the parent company of GRUPO SANTALUCÍA, a provider of protection, savings and family assistance services, with a significant presence in different channels and geographies.
At the end of 2021, the Group has consolidated revenues of 2,891 million euros and total assets of 13,179 million euros.
AM Best rates SANTALUCÍA’s financial strength (FSR) as "A" (Excellent), and its long-term issuer credit rating (ICR) as "a", both with a stable outlook. Fitch rates SANTALUCÍA’s financial strength (IFS) as "A", and its rating as "A-", both also with a stable outlook. In October 2022, the same agency reaffirms the financial strength rating as "A" and stable outlook.
Although its main market is in Spain, the Group is developing an important internationalization strategy, being currently present in Portugal, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.
About UNICAJA BANCO
Unicaja Banco is the fifth largest bank in the Spanish financial system by asset volume, with a proven track record of financial soundness, operating under a model of proximity banking and sustainable business.
A listed entity, with more than four million customers, it has a broad and diversified presence in 80% of the national territory, with around a thousand branches, and is a benchmark financial institution in six autonomous communities (Andalusia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Extremadura), as well as being present in other markets such as Madrid, Ceuta and Melilla, where it has a long-standing presence.
