Bankia and Caixabank have communicated that they are at a preliminary talks stage for a possible merger that would be carried out through an exchange of shares. For the time being, no agreement has been reached. The merger would create a lender with total assets of €664 Bn (according to data from Q2’20). So it would be the leading Spanish bank by volume of assets. It would combine a network of offices (including those of CaixaBank’s Portuguese subsidiary) with 6,700 branches and staff of over 51,000.