News

• This initiative is part of Banca March's commitment to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria, through initiatives that promote research, knowledge and the search for solutions to increase the country's wealth and competitiveness, improve the living conditions of citizens, as well as develop strategies that reinforce companies' competition and good governance.
• During the conference, academics and experts in the field of finance presented 15 studies, a selection of which will be published in a special edition of the Global Policy journal in the first quarter of 2024.
• The opening lecture was delivered by Andrés Almazán, professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and a Bank of America Centennial Fellow.

This is the second conference organised by Banca March which brings together leading figures from the academic world to analyse the challenges facing the banking industry in the area of good governance. In the previous edition, held in 2019 under the title Best Practices and Corporate Governance in the Banking Sector, academics and experts in the financial sphere debated the new regulatory environment that has emerged as a response to the excesses of the past.

This initiative is part of Banca March's commitment to contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth, through initiatives that promote research, knowledge and the search for solutions to increase the country's wealth and competitiveness, improve the living conditions of citizens, as well as develop strategies that reinforce companies' competition and good governance.

Anselmo Martín-Peñasco, Deputy Managing Director of Banca March and Head of Human Resources, welcomed the researchers. In his opening remarks, he highlighted Banca March's commitment to research and emphasised the bank's unique character: "Our uniqueness stems from a century-old business philosophy whose cornerstone is Shared Growth – for customers, employees, shareholders and society in general. At all times, we seek to add value not only to our shareholders, of course, but also to the professionals who work with us, to our customers and to the environment and society in which we operate. Sustainability over time has been in our DNA since the bank was founded in 1926." 

The opening talk was given by Andrés Almazán, professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and a Bank of America Centennial Fellow. He lectured on the problems surrounding compensation and incentives and their relationship with business success.

Afterwards, experts and professors from different universities presented their work in areas such as best practices in corporate governance, culture and leadership, risk and reputation management, sustainable business practices, CSR, ESG criteria, SRI, talent management, and more.

Manager training facility and connection to the academic world

Banca March, true to its business philosophy, whose basic pillar is the joint growth of customers, employees, shareholders and society as a whole, provides its professionals with ongoing and rigorous training in order to offer customers an outstanding specialised service, which has made the bank the best manager training facility in the Spanish banking sector. This commitment to knowledge includes the objective of promoting and enhancing the high value of the academic community's contributions to the financial sector.

As part of this philosophy, the Banca March Chair in Family Business was set up in 2004, wholly financed by Banca March, with the collaboration of the University of the Balearic Islands and the Balearic Family Business Association. This Chair includes courses on Family Business as an elective subject in a number of social science degrees, such as Business Administration, Law, Tourism, and more. To date, more than a thousand students have taken these courses.

Over the last few years, Banca March has expanded its range of training options with programmes on sustainability and aid for teaching and academic research projects. Notable among these initiatives was the creation of the Banca March doctorate, designed in collaboration with the University of Oviedo; every year, professionals from the bank complete the doctorate in Economics and Business. There are currently twenty professionals on the course.