CaixaBank will begin the technological integration with Bankia on Friday, which will cause alterations in services for its customers that will be resolved on Monday 15 November.
On Friday, 12 November, CaixaBank will begin the technological integration with Bankia, the process by which the computer systems of both entities and the data housed in them will be unified, which will affect 450,000 active customers of Bankia origin in the Region of Murcia. The work will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday 12, once the branches close to the public, and is expected to continue over the following two days, coinciding with the weekend. The integration is expected to be completed on Monday the 15th.
In this operation, the information of 7.6 million active Bankia customers will be transmitted with a volume of 10.4 PetaBytes, which is equivalent to 45 times the capacity stored in Spotify or the weight of 1,800 million songs in high quality mp3 format. In total, there are 2,500 million digitised documents (ID cards, contracts, signatures, receipts, or correspondence, among others) which, spread out on paper, would occupy the surface area of more than 20,000 football pitches.
How will the integration affect Bankia’s customers?
The technological process may cause some disruption to the availability of digital and self-service channels for Bankia customers.
As soon as the data migration begins (Friday 12 at 15:00), Bankia customers will be able to access their digital banking via web and mobile and consult their balance, but they will not be able to carry out transactions. Nor will the register of transactions be updated in the event that the customer carries out card transactions or withdrawals at ATMs.
From 3 p.m. on Friday 12 and until the end of the data migration (Saturday 13 at night, according to estimates), Bankia customers will not be able to send or receive money via Bizum or immediate transfers, even if the senders are customers of other banks. Any attempt to use Bizum from or to a telephone number associated with a Bankia customer will display an error message until the service is available again.
Bankia customers will be able to withdraw cash normally at ATMs throughout the weekend. However, their updated account balance will not be displayed until the end of the integration work.
Cards issued by Bankia will be able to operate normally while the integration is underway, allowing purchases to be made in physical shops as well as online. However, until the integration is completed, the movements made will not be updated…
The POS terminals of Bankia’s retail customers will accept transactions as normal. Most of them are already connected to CaixaBank’s systems, as this work has been carried out in advance to guarantee the availability of the service.
Once the data migration is completed and customers can start operating through CaixaBank’s digital channels, all services are expected to be enabled and offer full availability, including sending and receiving money through Bizum and immediate transfers. The balance will also be updated including card purchases and cash withdrawals made at ATMs over the weekend.
Some specific products and services will again offer updated position information during the following days. For example, pension plans will have updated plan valuation data on Tuesday 16 November.
Bankia customers will continue to be able to operate in CaixaBank through the same channels they have been using until now.
Normal operations for CaixaBank customers
CaixaBank customers are expected to be able to operate normally through CaixaBankNow, both web and mobile, or the imagin app, and to use their ATMs and cards without incident, with their position updated in real time. Customers of other banks who withdraw money at ATMs will be able to do so in the usual way, regardless of whether the ATM is a Bankia ATM or a CaixaBank ATM.
Redirection to CaixaBank’s digital channels
The integration will begin with the migration of information from Bankia’s systems to CaixaBank’s (Friday 12 at 3 p.m.). As soon as the work begins, balance updates on Bankia’s digital channels will be temporarily suspended and, when consulting their position, customers will only see the data recorded on Friday, at the start of the technological integration work.
However, preparations for the integration will start to become evident a few hours before the process formally kicks off. For example, since Thursday 11, Bankia customers may notice that the update of their account balance, after carrying out some operations, does not take place immediately, but after 2 or 3 hours.
When the migration phase is completed (expected overnight on Saturday 13), both the Bankia website, www.bankia.es, and the mobile banking application will be automatically redirected to the CaixaBank commercial website, www.caixabank.es, and the CaixaBankNow and imagin applications. From Sunday 14, Bankia customers will be able to download and access the CaixaBank digital banking apps. All information about their position will have been transferred to CaixaBank’s systems.
On their first access to CaixaBank mobile banking, users will be able to use the same passwords they used with Bankia. The system will ask them to carry out the usual security checks, for which they will need their mobile phone.
For this reason, an information campaign has been carried out in recent weeks so that Bankia’s digital banking customers can check that the financial institution has updated their number. If this is not the case, the customer’s digital operations will be limited, as they will be able to access in consultative mode, but they will not be able to make online purchases until they inform the bank of their current telephone number.
From their first access to CaixaBank’s digital banking channels, customers will be provided with a comprehensive tutorial to help them familiarise themselves with the design and functionalities offered by CaixaBankNow and imagin.
Technological integration: a key phase of the merger process
Once the technological integration is completed, CaixaBank will have unified all commercial information, as well as the systems through which financial transactions can be carried out and products contracted, including all channels: branches, ATMs, web, mobile, payment networks and retail POS. For this reason, technological integration is a fundamental phase in the merger process; when it is completed, the two institutions will operate in practice as a single bank, less than eight months after the legal merger.
For customers, this milestone means a much larger service network, with a more extensive branch network, more customer service specialists, more remote managers (in the case of customers of the inTouch remote model) and the support of the first online banking platform in Spain, with more than 10 million digital customers.
The bank has achieved a balanced and diversified geographical presence, with the largest and most specialised branch network, as well as the commitment to maintaining the proximity to the territory and financial inclusion that CaixaBank and Bankia have always demonstrated. The bank is present in around 2,200 municipalities, and is the only one in 389.