Banca March, S.A., () is a Spanish

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

and financial services company headquartered in Palma and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. The bank was founded in 1926 by Juan March. In the beginning, its sphere of influence was limited to Majorca but it eventually grew to be the leading independent bank in the Balearic Islands. In 1974 it initiated an expansion onto the Spanish peninsula and in 1989 it began serious operations in the Canary Islands. Since the beginning of the 21st century, March has continued to expand its operations in the Balearic and Canary Islands, has begun operations in the tourist destinations of

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

and is in the process of expanding its offices in Madrid,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, and London. The March family is a well known banking dynasty in Spain, sometimes mentioned alongside Europe's biggest banking families, the

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...

and von Oppenheim

dynasties A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A d ...

. The bank is notorious for its

solvency Solvency, in finance or business, is the degree to which the current assets of an individual or entity exceed the current liabilities of that individual or entity. Solvency can also be described as the ability of a corporation to meet its long-t ...

. In 2010, March was deemed "the safest bank in Europe" by the 2010 European Union bank stress test.

History

Banca March was founded in Palma de Mallorca in 1926 by

Juan March Ordinas Juan Alberto March Ordinas (4 October 1880 – 10 March 1962) was a Spanish business magnate, arms and tobacco smuggler, banker and philanthropist. Closely associated with the Nationalist side during and after the Spanish Civil War, March was ...

. At first, the bank's area of influence was limited to Mallorca, progressively expanding throughout the 20th century and becoming an independent bank in all of the Balearic Islands. The main objective was to finance a part of the business activities of its founder. In 1974 it began its expansion in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

and in 1989 a significant implantation began in the Canary Islands. In recent years, at the beginning of the 21st century, the growth of the network in the Balearic and Canary Islands has been complemented with the expansion in the areas of

and Levante, in addition to strengthening and modernizing the Madrid,

and London offices. During the 80's, the Marches were the largest shareholders of Banco Hispanoamericano, with 5% of the equity, and they controlled a similar stake in

Banco Popular Español Banco Popular Español, S.A. () was the sixth largest banking group in Spain before it was bought by Banco Santander as part of a rescue package in June 2017. Components The group consisted of the following companies: national bank Banco Popular ...

. The government of the

Spanish Socialist Workers Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

(PSOE) attempted a merger of both banks with the Marches as the architects of the operation. Luis Valls-Taberner, chairman of Popular, refused outright and aborted the merger. The Marches later negotiated with banker Claudio Boada his exit from Hispano and the purchase of Banco Urquijo, an operation that was closed in 1988 for a price of 56 billion pesetas (€336.57 million at the time). Subsequently, the Belgian financial group KBC bought Banco Urquijo from the March family for €350 million. The operation was closed in two phases: first in 1998 it took over 70% of the stake and in 2004, it bought the rest.

Financial information

Business model

At present, Banca March is allegedly pursuing a deeper strategic business model mainly focused on

private banking Private banking is banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs)—defined as those with very high levels of income or sizable assets. A bank that ...

( high and

ultra high-net-worth individual Ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) are defined as having a net worth of at least US$30 million in constant 2018 dollars. It is the wealth segment above very-high-net-worth individuals (greater than $5 million) and high-net-worth-individ ...

s), large-cap stocks and

family office A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50-$100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer ...

s. The March Group maintains a structure that responds to the development of two main activities: * '' 'Banking activity' '': Through Banca March and its related companies: March Gestión de Fondos, March Gestión de Pensiones, March Vida de Seguros y Reaseguros, March JLT Correduría de Seguros, Consulnor, 360 Corporate and Inversis. * '' 'Investment activity' '': Through Corporación Financiera Alba, of which Banca March is the main shareholder. It participates in publicly-listed companies such as Acerinox,

Prosegur Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad, S.A ("Prosegur") is a multinational security company, headquartered in Madrid, Spain. History Prosegur was founded in 1976 by Herberto Gut. It began as a private security company, with a particular focus on ...

, CIE Automotive, Indra,

Ebro Foods Ebro Foods, S.A. (; ), formerly Ebro Puleva, is a Spanish food processing company. Ebro Foods is the world's largest producer of rice and the second biggest producer of pasta (its Panzani brand is a market leader in France). The company's head offi ...

and Antevenio. Corporación Financiera Alba is also a reference shareholder of Deyá Capital, with which it participates in unlisted companies. Banca March logo

Key figures

The net income result attributed to Banca March, S.A. at 31 December 2019 was €125.06 million, 18.8% higher than the same period of the previous year. Client banking resources increased by 5.5% and disintermediation by 32.3%, bringing the assets managed in

SICAV A SICAV is a collective investment scheme common in Western Europe, especially Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Malta, France, and the Czech Republic. SICAV is an acronym in French for ''société d'investissement à capital variabl ...

to €2.071 billion, including Consulnor, thus making Banca March the third Spanish entity in the management of these institutions by volume. At the end of March 2014, March Gestión, Banca March's investment fund manager, had assets of €4.382 billion, which represents a growth of 58% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Banca March delinquency stood at 1.82% in December 2019, reaching the coverage of non-performing risks at 54.87%. The Group's solvency ratio was 16.15% in December 2013, being 100%

tier 1 capital Tier 1 capital is the core measure of a bank's financial strength from a regulator's point of view.By definition of Bank for International Settlements. It is composed of ''core capital'', which consists primarily of common stock and disclosed res ...

. During 2013, Banca March acquired 100% of Inversis Banco, thus becoming the sole shareholder.

Corporación Financiera Alba

Apart from its banking activity, Banca March has a publicly-listed subsidiary, Corporación Financiera Alba, co-chaired by Juan March y Delgado and his brother Carlos. Alba's shares include: * Acerinox (19.35%) * BME (12.06%) * CIE Automotive (10.15%) * Indra (10.52%) *

(14%) *

Euskaltel Euskaltel, S.A. is a Spanish telecommunications company based in Derio, Basque Country. It was formed in 1995 in a joint effort by the Basque Government and several Basque saving banks. Its name is literally translated in English as "Basque-Tel" ...

(11%) * Naturgy (5.36%) *

Viscofan Viscofan is a Spanish manufacturer of casings for meat products (also known as artificial casings given their capacity to replace animal casings that are used in the production of cold meats), with commercial presence in over 100 countries ar ...

(13.03%) *

Parques Reunidos Parques Reunidos (meaning "Reunited Parks") is an international entertainment operator based in Madrid, Spain. The group operates over 60 parks in about dozen countries. Parques Reunidos operates theme and amusement parks, zoos, water parks, fam ...

(24.98%) * Securitas Direct (6.14%)

Shareholders

The control of Banca March, S.A. is exercised by the 4 children of Juan March y Servera: Juan (33.3%), Carlos (33.3%), Gloria (16.6%) and Leonor March y Delgado (16.6%), who jointly control 100% of its share capital, without any of them doing so individually. Banca March, S.A. and its shareholders jointly control 66.7% of Corporación Financiera Alba.

2010 EU banking stress test exercise

In July 2010 Banca March came on top of the European Union banking stress test exercise in terms of Tier 1 capital ratio. According to the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'':

''While most scrutiny on Friday focused on the seven banks, of the 91 tested, that fell short of the 6 per cent tier one capital ratio pass mark, the exercise also shines the spotlight on the banks with the strongest capital positions.''

''Banca March, with a stressed tier one capital ratio of 19 per cent, is an anomaly in the Spanish financial system. Neither caja nor stock market-listed lender, March is an 84-year-old family-owned bank and equity investment group based on Mallorca.''

''A small branch network serves mainly wealthy clients, business families and companies looking for one-stop retail and corporate banking, asset management and financial products such as insurance and pensions. Non-performing loans account for 3.5 per cent of total assets, compared with a system average of 5.5 per cent.''

''As other Spanish lenders grapple with offloading multi-billion euro property portfolios acquired via foreclosures, debt-for-equity and debt-for-equity swaps, March is sitting on just €97m ($125m) of real estate. Its only exposure to sovereign debt is €105m of Spanish bonds.''Mark Mulligan and Patrick Jenkins, The safest bank, ''Financial Times'', July 25, 2010 ft.com
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References

{{Authority control Banks of Spain Banks established in 1926