CaixaBank partners Plug and Play to back Spanish fintech startups

CaixaBank has teamed up with Silicon Valley-based innovation platform Plug and Play on a Spanish fintech startup programme.

The Barcelona Engagement Programme will see the partners work with startups to promote new banking and insurance services.

A committee will select promising Spanish fintech startups, which will then get support from CaixaBank Payments and Consumer, imaginBank and Plug and Play to help develop proof-of-concepts.

Juan Antonio Alcaraz, chief business officer, CaixaBank, says: "The aim of the project is to strengthen innovation in key areas for the financial sector today, such as enhancing user experience or driving new business models.

"Thanks to its very early commitment to innovation, CaixaBank has been able to consolidate itself as an international pacesetter in technology, through a model of co-creation with third parties.

"This agreement aims to strengthen the model, through new ideas contributed by early-stage businesses, as well as through the connection with the international Plug and Play network, with a focus on start-ups from the fintech sector offering disruptive proposals, both in the mobile sphere and in payment services, which have already demonstrated their success in the market."