Josep Vilarasau, who transformed La Caixa from a regional savings bank into a financial giant, dies at 95

A career forged in Madrid

Vilarasau was born in Barcelona on 20 February 1931. He studied at La Salle Bonanova, where he met his future successor Ricard Fornesa, and earned a doctorate in industrial engineering and a degree in economics, with post-graduate studies at the University of Manchester. He entered the Ministry of Finance in 1958, joined Telefónica as deputy director general in 1966, and held the posts of director general of the Treasury (1969) and director general of Financial Policy (1972). Those appointments placed him among the technocrats who drove the economic reforms of the late Franco period. He also taught at Madrid’s Polytechnic University and, in 1974, was made director general of the state oil company CAMPSA. In 1973 he helped his cousin Carlos Ferrer Salat found Banco de Europa and sat on its board.

Reshaping La Caixa

His appointment as director general of La Caixa in 1976 marked a decisive break. At the time the entity – then the Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona – operated 320 branches with 3,000 staff and earned 2,655 million pesetas. By 1999, when Vilarasau moved to the presidency, the bank had 4,000 offices, 17,500 employees and profits of 110,000 million pesetas. The territorial push beyond Catalonia was matched by the adoption of a universal banking model. He introduced the Joan Miró star logo in 1981 and oversaw the construction of the two black towers on Avenida Diagonal, which became enduring symbols of the institution.

Industrial muscle in Madrid

Under Vilarasau, La Caixa accumulated significant stakes in blue-chip Spanish corporations. It became a reference shareholder in Telefónica, Repsol, Gas Natural, Aguas de Barcelona, Abertis and Port Aventura, among others. That web of holdings gave the Catalan group a weight in Madrid that few other regional businesses possessed. One business figure told EL PERIÓDICO that, in his day, Vilarasau was “el único catalán a quien le hacían caso en Madrid” – the only Catalan who was listened to in Madrid.

Mandate and succession

He served as president from 1999 to 2003, handing the reins to his old schoolmate Ricard Fornesa. Afterwards he remained honorary president of both La Caixa and the La Caixa Foundation. The bank eventually evolved into CaixaBank, which closed the 2025 financial year with 18.87 million clients. Vilarasau died in Barcelona on 28 July 2026, aged 95, with the news confirmed by the foundation.