On the 22nd and 23rd may 2003 took place, in the Conference Centre in Madrid, the 20º World Congress of Savings Banks, organized as we said before by the Spanish Conferedation. Their Majesties the King and the Queen of Spain chaired the opening ceremony in which they welcomed the participants from all over the world. They hand over to the major of Madrid, the President-Director of CECA, the President of the World Institute of Savings Banks, the Spanish Chancellor of the Exchequer and the King of Spain.

The Chairwoman of the National Federation of Confederate Savings Banks’Pensioners Associations, Mrs. Victoria Lopesino and the vice-chair/ secretary of the European Group of Savings Banks, Banks and similar organizations’Pensioners, Mr. Julio Barrera, on behalf of the President, MR. José R. López, who could not attend because of a stale accident, joined the meeting. The logical final conclusion of the congress of savings banks was: to give benefits to our society and to create wealth.

This is our raison d’être. The main subjects of the meeting were: the tendency to a global economy in the current society, the financial sector, the financial institutions’ efficiency and its social committment. These subjects were the basis of many studies, communications and reflections of the representatives of the savings’ world and the Sapanish authorities. These realities represent the savings banks’ identity and their social leadership.

This is the Spanish savings banks’ fingerprint, private institutuions whose objective is the investment in social deeds. They have a vocation for it, it is their raison d’être, their mission, their role in the Spanish social and economic panorama. Thanks to a modern and efficient management we could give to our society more benefits and the surplus we obtained.

Savings Banks’ role goes beyond a simple service, a rapprochement between them and society, since they respond whenever neither the public nor the public enterprises fail. Our economic authorities praised our savings banks work, their cautious politics and their efficient activity and they encouraged them to keep on fighting and identifying with our society in order to assess and fulfill all its needs.

This Congress has represented an international mosaic with members on behalf of different savings banks from all over the world, but with the same social aim, the same worries, the same achievements, the same committment and desire to perfect day by day a universal plan and to contribute a human touch that opposes the simple economic materialism.