Türkiye Garanti Bankası A.Ş., announced its financial statements dated March 31, 2017. Based on the consolidated financials, in the first three months of 2017, the Bank posted a consolidated net income of TL 1.54 billion. While Garanti’s asset size reached TL 328.69 billion, its contribution to the Turkish economy through cash and non-cash lending exceeded TL 269.26 billion. The Bank’s ROAE (Return on Average Equity) improved to 18.9% and ROAA (Return on Average Assets) to 2.1%.

From January to March 2017, the BBVA Group obtained a net attributable profit of €1.2 billion, 69 % higher than the same period in 2016 (+79.2 % in constant terms). This makes it BBVA’s best results of the past seven quarters. The main factors that explain the growth are strong performance in recurring revenue, cost containment and lower impairments on financial assets.

Following the publication of first quarter results, BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila today said that net attributable profit from January through March increased by 69%, to €1.2 billion. “This is the highest level of profit of the past seven quarters,” he said. This has been possible thanks to income growth, lower impairments on financial assets and exemplary cost containment practices.  Also, the capital generation during the quarter was very notable.

Running is now in vogue - so much so that every runner spends around €475 per year to practice the sport.

 - Openpay is a Mexican startup that offers an advanced platform of physical and electronic payments for businesses. Created with software developers in mind, the platform offers a wide range of online payment solutions and functionalities, outstanding among which are its sophisticated anti-fraud models.

Currently, Openpay has a network of more than 15,000 payment reception points in Mexico, connected in real time through its Paynet network, and manages more than one million transactions a month. The Openpay platform is used by more than 1,000 businesses in Mexico, from startups to SMEs and large corporate clients.

- The synergies between BBVA Bancomer and Openpay will multiply the commercial capacities of both companies, complement their catalogue of products for corporate clients and allow them to strengthen their payment solutions.

- BBVA Bancomer supports the entrepreneur ecosystem through its Innovation Center and propels fintech companies with its Open Talent (OT) competition. It also promotes direct associations with startups to validate their business models and offers financial services to benefit customers. Openpay was a finalist in Open Talent 2015, in an event that involved 652 projects from 63 countries and close to 200 experts.

The economic slowdown in Latin America will come to an end this year, with a 1.1% growth rate in the region. Forecasts by BBVA Research estimate that in 2018, the region´s economy will continue to recover, with GDP expanding at the rate of 1.8%. This is still well below its potential, which is estimated at close to 3%.