BASE PROSPECTUS Criteria Caixa, S.A., Sociedad Unipersonal (incorporated as a public limited company) €3,000,000,000 Euro Medium Term Note Programme This base prospectus (the Base Prospectus) has been approved by the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores the CNMV), as the competent authority for the purpose of Directive 2003/71/EC, as amended (the Prospectus Directive), as a base prospectus in accordance with the requirements provided under the European Union (EU) and Spanish law pursuant to the Prospectus Directive with regard to the issue by Criteria Caixa, S.A., Sociedad Unipersonal (the Issuer, Criteria or CriteriaCaixa), a public limited company (sociedad anónima), of notes (the Notes) under the Euro Medium Term Note Programme (the Programme) described in this Base Prospectus during the period of twelve months after the date hereof. An application will be made for the Notes to be admitted to trading on the Spanish AIAF Fixed Income Securities Market (AIAF) (and, if the case may be, other European securities markets which qualify as regulated markets for the purposes of Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II)). Notice of the aggregate nominal amount of Notes, interest (if any) payable in respect of Notes, the issue price of Notes and certain other information applicable to each issue of Notes will be set out in a final terms document (the Final Terms) which will be filed with the CNMV. For the purpose of Article 14 of the Prospectus Directive, this Base Prospectus and any Final Terms issued under the Programme will be published on the website of the CNMV (www.cnmv.es) and on the Issuer’s website (www.criteriacaixa.com). This Base Prospectus is only addressed to, and directed at, persons who are qualified investors within the meaning of Article 2.1(e) of the Prospectus Directive. In addition, in the United Kingdom, this Base Prospectus may be distributed to, and directed at, persons (i) who have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the Order); (ii) high net worth companies, unincorporated associations and other bodies within the categories described in Article 49(2) of the Order; and (iii) persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together, relevant persons). Therefore, this Base Prospectus must not be acted on or relied upon (i) in any member state of the European Economic Area (EEA) other than the United Kingdom, by persons who are not qualified investors, and (ii) in the United Kingdom, by persons who are not qualified investors or relevant persons. The Notes will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons except pursuant to an exception from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Under the Programme, the Issuer may from time to time issue Notes denominated in any currency or currencies, subject to compliance with all applicable legal and/or regulatory requirements. No Notes may be issued under the Programme with a denomination of less than €100,000 (or the equivalent amount in another currency). The aggregate principal amount of Notes outstanding will not at any time exceed €3,000,000,000 (or the equivalent amount in other currencies) in accordance with the threshold authorised by CriteriaCaixa's Board of Directors' resolution passed on 15 March 2018 on the basis of the authorisation granted by a decision of the sole shareholder of the Issuer taken on 15 March 2018. In this regard, Criteria Caixa’s Board of Directors approved on 15 March 2018 the establishment of the Programme for a maximum aggregate principal amount of €3,000,000,000 (or the equivalent in other currencies at the date of issue). The Notes will be issued in uncertificated, dematerialised book-entry form (anotaciones en cuenta) and will be registered with the Spanish Sociedad de Gestión de los Sistemas de Registro, Compensación y Liquidación de Valores, S.A., Sociedad Unipersonal (Iberclear) as managing entity of the central registry of the Spanish clearance and settlement system (the Spanish Central Registry). Consequently, no global certificates will be issued in respect of the Notes. Clearing and settlement relating to the Notes, as well as payment of interest and redemption of principal amounts, will be performed within Iberclear's account-based system. At the date of this Prospectus, the Issuer has been rated BBB (stable outlook) as long-term debt issuer and F2 (stable outlook) as short-term debt issuer by Fitch Ratings España, S.A.U. (Fitch) and Baa2 (stable outlook) as long-term debt issuer by Moody's Deutschland GmbH (Moody's). As of the date of this Base Prospectus, Fitch and Moody's are established in the EU and are registered under the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009, as amended (the CRA Regulation). As such Fitch and Moody's are included in the list of credit rating agencies published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on its website (at http://www.esma.europa.eu/page/List-registered-and-certified- CRAs) in accordance with the CRA Regulation. A rating is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities and may be subject to suspension, reduction or withdrawal at any time by the assigning rating agency. MiFID II product governance / target market –Any person offering, selling or recommending the Notes (a distributor) should take into consideration the target market assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the Notes (by either adopting or refining the target market assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels. For the purposes of the Product Governance rules under EU Delegated Directive 2017/593 (the MiFID II Product Governance Rules), neither the Arranger nor the Dealers nor any of their respective affiliates will be a manufacturer for the purposes of the MIFID II Product Governance Rules. PRIIP/IMPORTANT- EEA RETAIL INVESTORS - The Notes are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the EEA. For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive 2002/92/EC (as amended, the Insurance Mediation Directive), where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II. Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 (as amended, the PRIIPs Regulation) for offering or selling the Notes or otherwise making them available to retail investors in the EEA will be prepared and therefore offering or selling the Notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the EEA may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation. EU BENCHMARKS REGULATION - Amounts payable on Floating Rate Notes may be calculated by reference to the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR) or the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) or any other benchmark as specified in the relevant Final Terms. EURIBOR is provided by the European Money Markets Institutes (MMI), LIBOR by ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (ICE) and in case the amounts payable under Floating Rate Notes are calculated by reference to any other benchmark, such benchmark will be calculated by an administrator to be appointed by the Issuer for such purposes. As at the date of this Base Prospectus, ICE is authorized as a benchmark administrator, and included in, whereas MMI is not included in, the European Securities and Markets Authorities' register of administrators and benchmarks under Article 36 of the Regulation (EU) No. 2016/1011 (the Benchmarks Regulation). As far as the Issuer is aware, the transitional provisions in Article 51 of the Benchmarks Regulation apply, such that MMI, ICE or any other benchmark administrator (as the case may be) are not currently required to obtain authorization/registration (or, if any other administrator which is not MMI or ICE is located outside the EU, recognition, endorsement or equivalence). The transitional provisions of Article 51 of the Benchmarks Regulation apply until 1 January 2020. Investing in Notes issued under the Programme involves certain risks. The principal risk factors that may affect the abilities of the Issuer to fulfil its obligations under the Notes are discussed under "Risk Factors" below. Arranger Morgan Stanley Dealers Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Barclays BNP PARIBAS BofA Merrill Lynch Argentaria CaixaBank Citigroup Crédit Agricole CIB Deutsche Bank Goldman Sachs International HSBC ING J.P. Morgan Mediobanca Morgan Stanley Natixis Nomura Société Générale Santander Corporate & Investment UniCredit Banking The date of this Base Prospectus is 10 May 2018. 2/113 IMPORTANT NOTICES This Base Prospectus comprises a base prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Directive. This Base Prospectus does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any Notes offered hereby by any person in any jurisdiction in which it is unlawful for such person to make such an offer or solicitation. Neither the delivery of this Base Prospectus or any