Caja Madrid

The Monte de Piedad de Madrid did not charge interest on its loans until 1836 when a charge was introduced to cover operating costs of the organisation. In 1838, by royal decree, the Caja de Ahorros de Madrid was founded as a savings bank on the British model following the ideas of Jeremy Bentham. Initially the Caja de Ahorros and the Monte de Piedad worked closely together but remained separate institutions.

In 1869 the two institutions were merged and became the Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Madrid. Later, to show the importance of the savings side of the operation, the title of the merged institution was reversed and it became the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid.

Caja Madrid was the fourth largest financial group in Spain, with a turn-over of 180,700 million euros in 2005. It had 12,800 employees in a national network of 1,900 offices, and four foreign branches in Miami, Lisbon, Dublin and Vienna. It also had 330 bank branches within the offices of the insurance company, Mapfre.

Apart from its traditional banking business, Caja Madrid participated in a collection of companies, either directly or via the holding company, Corporacion Financiera Caja Madrid..