BBVA’s Board of Directors held this wednesday its monthly meeting in Barcelona. The previous day was taken up by a series of working meetings on the bank’s digital transformation. The Board also went over developments in its franchise in Catalonia and agreed to modify the composition of its committees.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila said this morning that “the opportunities for both BBVA and our customers are in the digital world.” The Group’s chief executive participated in the 25th Finance Sector Meeting organized annually by Deloitte and Spanish daily ABC.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila said this morning in Mexico that “digitization is having a huge impact on customer satisfaction,” resulting in higher levels of engagement. “Digitization is helping customers interact more with us, and they are more satisfied and loyal. This new way of interacting is a powerful lever that is transforming our value proposal, allowing us to help our clients with their lives and businesses in a deeper way,” he added.

BBVA’s results for the first three months of 2018 surpassed market estimates by a wide margin. Banking analysts reacted positively to the results of both the Group and its regional franchises, which outperformed consensus forecasts. On the whole, analyst reports focused on the bank’s revenue strength, cost containment efforts, and impairment losses below expected levels.

BBVA’s strategy to bolster digitization translates into more digital sales, which are the main driver of total sales thanks to their impact on customer satisfaction and efficiency. These were some of the key insights shared by BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila during the bank’s Q1-18 conference call: “Digitization helps us improve efficiency while driving profit growth,” he said.

BBVA kicked off 2018 with a strong performance. First-quarter earnings confirm the positive trends seen in the previous quarters. “We had a very solid start of the year, with solid and recurring results. The significant progress in the transformation highlights the success of our strategy,” said BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila.

These are the keys to BBVA’s results in the first quarter of this year:

• Transformation: Digital sales grew in all regions and accounted for 37 percent of total in Q1-18. Clients banking through digital channels rose 25 percent yoy, while those using mobile devices grew 43 percent. Such exponential growth contributed to the strength of recurring revenues, and the efficiency ratio reached its best reading since June 2012
• Income: Driven by strong recurring revenues and cost containment efforts, the operating income grew 5.1 percent yoy in constant terms
• Risks: Risk indicators continued to perform positively. At the end of March, the NPL ratio stood at 4.4 percent, with coverage of 73 percent
• Capital: BBVA’s pro forma fully-loaded CET1 ratio -including the already announced agreements of BBVA Chile and Cerberus, which are to be concluded later this year- stood at 11.47 percent at the end of March

In an interview with Spanish daily ‘El País’ from Silicon Valley, BBVA Chief Executive Officer says that “data belongs to customers and can only be used with their consent.” In comments to ‘El País’ Carlos Torres Vila also advances that BBVA is exploring the use of blockchain in corporate loans. This technology has the potential “to add a lot of transparency, efficiency and immutability, and offers a wide array of other possible uses.”

“Our way is to help our customers take the best decisions.” In an in-depth interview with Actualidad Económica magazine,  BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila explained the profound transformation that BBVA is undergoing. This is a process that is materializing in customized solutions to help the bank’s customers and clients achieve their vital goals, he added.

January 2017 saw a new era begin for BBVA Compass, the U.S. subsidiary of BBVA, when Onur Genç took the reigns as the bank’s CEO and country manager.

• Good results: In 2017, the BBVA Group posted a net attributable profit of €3.52 billion (+1.3%). Excluding the accounting adjustment of Telefónica and the capital gains from extraordinary corporate operations, net profit in 2017 was €4.29 billion, up 23.3% from a year earlier. The main drivers behind this result were a positive performance of recurring revenue, cost containment efforts in operating expenses and an effective risk management strategy
• Group Executive Chairman: Total remuneration of BBVA Executive Chairman for 2017 was €5.8 million, up 18% from 2016. The Chairman’s variable compensation rose 12% compared to the previous year. The deferred variable remuneration is subject to multi-annual indicators, based on which remuneration can be reduced or taken to zero, never increased. It also includes a Malus clause that could limit or prevent its collection, and clawback clauses intended to reduce or reclaim already paid amounts
• CEO: Carlos Torres Vila’s total remuneration was €4.9 million in 2017. HIs variable compensation is also subject to the same deferral period and conditions as that of the Chairman

BBVA is continuing to deliver impressive results in its digital transformation, the Group has revealed in its full year 2017 results.

BBVA’s digital customers are increasing in number, are more satisfied and interact more with the bank. In fact, the bank has reached its digital tipping point, at which more than 50 percent of its customers are using the bank’s digital channels in six countries (Spain, the United States, Turkey, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela). It’s a milestone that foreseeably will be reached this year by more of the countries where BBVA operates. Indeed in Davos last week, BBVA Group Executive Chairman Francisco González predicted the Group’s customer base as a whole will pass the 50 percent tipping point in 2018.

Carlos Torres Vila, CEO of BBVA, last week participated in the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, Switzerland. In this article, he explains how artificial intelligence and the global debate over the use of data took up a good part of the debates and discussions at this year’s meeting.

This year, the World Economic Forum at Davos is attracting plenty of attention. From the long-awaited speech by U.S. President Donald Trump to the criticisms of American protectionism and support for global cooperation expressed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, no leader misses their moment in the spotlight to send messages to the world community.

UK based Atom Bank has announced that its Chairman and Founder, Anthony Thomson, is to step down from his position with the company.

U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed his attendance at this year’s annual World Economic Forum, which will kick off on January 23 at Davos, Switzerland. President Trump will share the spotlight with some 60 heads of state and government, and an ensemble of business leaders, scholars, artists and prominent figures from civil society. Together, they will seek to deliver on the meeting’s theme: “Creating a shared future in a fractured world.’ Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump will deliver the event’s opening and closing speeches, respectively.

Carlos Torres Vila, BBVA’s Chief Executive Officer, this morning said open innovation is one of the key elements of the bank´s transformation to adapt financial services to customers’ new needs. “Keeping up with the rapid pace of change that companies are undergoing, including the financial services sector, the connection with the innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurs is essential,” he said.

BBVA aims to become the bank that customers trust, the one that helps them make the best financial decisions by offering them tailored advice.  Data is the essential raw material for making those decisions. In this regard, customer consent is necessary and to obtain it, “it will be essential to create a circle of trust with the customer,” said BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila. He spoke during a breakfast meeting in Madrid organized by the Association for Management Progress (APD – Asociación para el Progreso de la Dirección) and sponsored by AXIS, on the challenges facing the financial sector.

In April 2010, when smartphone penetration was still very low in Argentina, BBVA Francés launched an innovative communication channel to be closer to its customers. FrancésGo was the first mobile channel in the financial sector. It allowed customers to obtain information about BBVA Francés card promotions by text message (SMS that all types of devices could receive), segmented by area, type and brand. At the time, customers had to send the word “GO” to a four-digit number. And that’s how it all started.

BBVA today announced an agreement with a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (Cerberus) to create a joint venture (JV) for its real estate business in Spain, reducing almost entirely its exposure to non core real estate assets. On the closing of the operation, BBVA will sell an 80% stake in the JV to Cerberus for about €4 billion. The transaction marks a milestone in BBVA Group’s strategy.

BBVA received a binding offer from The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) for its 68.19% stake in BBVA Chile and other related businesses such as the life insurance arm for about $2.2 billion (1.85 billion euros)¹. The offer does not include the automobile financing activity of Grupo Forum, that will continue to be 100% owned by BBVA.

BBVA is close to passing another important online target as it continues to build out its digital banking capabilities.

One of the things about huge conferences like Money 20/20 in Las Vegas is that you get to see the ideas that will shape the future of the banking sector.

BBVA today signed a global strategic agreement with Telefónica that will allow the bank to optimize its communications, increase the capacity of its technological network and facilitate operations in the “cloud.”

Every quarter, BBVA rolls out new products and functionalities, delivering new amazing experiences for its mobile and online customers to enjoy. By year end, the bank expects that about 92% of its current product portfolio will be available on its digital channels in Spain, as well as to be able to continue making progress in its other franchises. BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila explained how this effort is having an “impressive impact”, as evidenced by the exponential rate at which digital sales are growing. Digital sales account for about one fourth of the bank’s total, with more than 3.5 million units sold between July and September.

Today BBVA announced financial results for the nine first months of 2017. “Quarter after quarter, BBVA keeps posting solid, recurring and sustainable results,” said CEO Carlos Torres Vila. What figures explain this solidity? Here are the six more noteworthy:

• Operating income: Recurring revenues continued their upward trend, growing 4.2% between January and September. This, together with cost containment efforts (expenses dropped 1.7% in the year to September), drove operating income to a record €9.52 billion
• Risks: The NPL ratio continued to improve, reaching 4.5% in September (vs. 4.8% in June), the lowest level in the past five years. Coverage increased to 72%
• Capital: The fully-loaded CET1 ratio rose to 11.2% in September, reflecting a capital generation of 30 basis points in the first nine months of the year
• Transformation: The digital customer base grew 24% y-o-y to 21.1 million in September. Of these, the number of customers banking with their smartphones surged 43% to 15.8 million

BBVA has been in Las Vegas this week, taking part in one of the world’s biggest fintech events, Money 20/20. The scale of the conference is huge – more than 11,000 delegates, including 1,700 CEOs and Presidents, from 4,500 companies and more than 85 countries around the world. BBVA’s CEO, Carlos Torres Vila and its Head of Customer and Client Solutions, Derek White, both attended, alongside several other senior leaders.

You have to move quickly to bring the future within reach. That’s why I am at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas. It’s an event full of young startups and transformative ideas that will change and evolve rapidly. They discover and understand what needs to change in the world of financial services and use technology to innovate. This is where what will be the next big thing in banking is being discussed.

If you don’t innovate and change you will be dead, that was the message from BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila at the bank’s inaugural fintech focused Open Summit in Madrid today. Speaking to an audience of entrepreneurs, investors, influencers and startups, Torres Vila also said the only true way to keep innovation fresh was to be open to ideas from outside your own business and sector.

One of the world’s most respected publications, The Economist, has written up an article on BBVA entitled “BBVA, A Spanish Bank, Reinvents itself as a Digital Business’. The focus of the piece is on the steps BBVA is taking to transform itself into the bank of the future, and the reasons for doing this.

The financial sector has undergone tremendous change in the past few years thanks to the adoption of emerging technologies such as the smartphone.

BBVA strives to be more than a bank for its customers: it wants to help them make everyday decisions about their finances, BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila said today in Barcelona. Following the initial revolution caused by the emergence of technology in the financial sector – particularly cell phones – the future of banking will consist of a hybrid model that combines digital channels with personalized advice from remote financial advisors. This will make it possible to offer customers expert financial solutions they can trust. “I see a banking industry that is very much present in people’s daily lives,” Torres Vila said at a meeting organized by the ESADE business school.

“Developing better solutions for customers through technology,” is one of the goals of BBVA. And the bank is managing to achieve it. CEO Carlos Torres Vila, along with CFO Jaime Sáenz de Tejada, used the occasion of the presentation of bank’s second quarter 2017 results to offer some interesting data on the bank´s digital transformation.

BBVA presented today its financial statements for the April-June 2017 period. BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila said that “the second quarter results confirm the positive trends recorded earlier this year, both in terms of financial results and of transformation and value creation for shareholders.”

How did the bank do during these three months? And what about during the first half of the year? These are the keys to understanding the results:

• Income: Net interest income reached a seven-quarter high in Q2. In the year to June, this item, plus fees and commissions, grew 5.1% y-o-y. This, combined with cost-containment efforts, helped keep the efficiency ratio at levels below 50%
• Risks: The Group’s NPL ratio stood at 4.8% at the end of the quarter, compared to 4.9% in December; coverage stood at 71%
• Capital: BBVA remained in line with its fully-loaded CET1 target (11%). It added 20 basis points in the first two quarters and increased the ratio to 11.10%. This ratio includes the negative impact related to the March purchase of an additional 9.95% stake in Turkey’s Garanti
• Transformation: As of the end of June, BBVA’s digital customer base came to 19.9 million (+22% y-o-y). Of these, 14.5 million were mobile customers (+42% y-o-y). BBVA’s mobile banking app in Spain is the best in the world, according to Forrester Research

BBVA has decided to move forward the publication of its second quarter 2017 results to July 27, a day earlier than originally scheduled, in order to facilitate its coverage, given the large number of presentations in the sector the following day.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila said that BBVA “wants to give its customers and clients the best service by using innovation to transform and disrupt its business as it works to bring the age of opportunity to everyone.” This was the core message the BBVA CEO delivered in a keynote speech to a packed audience at the Money 20/20 event in Copenhagen – the leading fintech event in Europe.

Carlos Torres Vila, CEO of BBVA, today said the advances in the Group’s transformation “allow us to have a very clear vision of what we are building and has created a momentum that today is unstoppable and which translates into execution and results.” During his speech at the opening of the seminar organized by APIE (The Association of Economic Journalists) and the UIMO (Menéndez Pelayo International University), this year entitled “ The Fourth Revolution: How does the digital agenda affect the economy and industry?”  The CEO also stressed that “at BBVA, we have a project, a great opportunity, and everything we do, or don´t do, has to be analyzed in light of the transformation.”

Although BBVA opened its first U.S. branch in New York City in 1988, it wasn’t until 2004, with the acquisition of a small Southern California bank, Valley Bank, that it rolled out its first retail banking operations in the U.S. Over the next two years, the acquisition of three more banks – Laredo National Bank, Texas State Bank and State National Bank – allowed BBVA to become a leading bank in Texas. By then, it was clear that BBVA was targeting the U.S. market as a pivotal element in its strategy to become a relevant global player. A reality that crystalized 10 years ago, with BBVA’s acquisition of Compass Bank in 2007.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila saw the BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s (FMBBVA) work in Peru first-hand through Financiera Confianza. To do so, he went to one of the most underprivileged  places in Lima, where he visited with several entrepreneurs – all women – who have found an opportunity to improve their quality of live and contribute to the economic development of their family and community thanks to microcredit.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila told international investors this Friday that “the quality of BBVA’s franchises, in strategic markets, provides resilience and contributes to the strong performance of our results.” He also believes that banks have some unfinished business: having a positive impact on peoples’ lives and businesses. BBVA is working on it.