Privatize the Caixa Geral de Depósitos? “It immediately became part foreign,” says Paulo Macedo.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) CEO Paulo Macedo said on Monday, in Braga, that if the public bank is privatised, it will immediately be left with a “foreign part”, due to the lack of sufficient capital in the country. Portugal.

“There are those who say that Caixa should be privatized. The result of privatizing Caixa is that it immediately becomes a foreign part, because there is not enough capital in Portugal to put the 10 billion euros or whatever Caixa has in its capital.” He said.

Opening another edition of Encontros Fora da Caixa, Paulo Macedo admitted that Portugal needs more foreign investment, because it suffers from a “shortage of private capital.”

Paulo Macedo highlighted CGD's “first place” in pressure The Europeans, highlighting that this performance had always been “unimaginable” for a European bank.

“Fortunately, Caixa not only achieved good results (…), but also managed to obtain the best place in terms of reputation and was able to obtain first place in terms of pressure Testing European banks, which would have been unthinkable here three years ago, or 10, or 15, or 20, whichever period you want. No one would have ever thought that a Portuguese bank would be in first place, while at the same time managing to raise its ratings. [notações]”, he confirmed.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos achieved record profits of €1,291 million in 2023, a 53% increase on the €843 million earned in 2022.

At a meeting on the topic “Artificial Intelligence: Engine of the Next Industrial Revolution?”, the CGD CEO said that AI “enables a 360-degree view of customers” and could therefore mean “relevant gains in the services the bank provides”.

“We have to combine technology and talent,” he said, stressing that he sees AI “as a supporting issue in corporate strategy,” which can help streamline operations, reduce costs and lead to “more informed decisions.” .

CGD has a base of three million customers, about 20% of whom belong to the so-called “Generation Z”, that is, those born between the beginning of the 1990s and 2001.

As can be seen on the website of the Public Bank, at stake are the so-called “digital natives”, who “have a natural skill in dealing with technology, and even find it difficult to remain offline”.

“As a generation characterized by realism and immediacy, they have different habits from the previous generation,” they say. “For example, they may prefer remote communications to face-to-face meetings and have some difficulty sticking to pre-set schedules.”

Therefore, Paolo Macedo says Caixa must know how to use technology to serve customers and put them “at the heart of its business.”