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.

The Bilbao headquarters of BBVA was one of the stops on a tour of Spain by future U.S. leaders. BBVA is the only Spanish financial institution involved in the “U.S. Young Leaders” program, which was launched in 2000 by Fundación Consejo España-Estados Unidos and the US-Spain Council.

BBVA Compass today announced that Manolo Sánchez is retiring as non-executive chairman of the board of directors of BBVA Compass and its holding company, BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc. Terry Strange, longtime member of the board and the current chairman of the Audit and Compliance Committee, will step into the role of non-executive chairman effective Nov. 15.

In the last two years four forces have shifted their perspective on sustainable issues. First, the global agenda has included sustainability in its goals with two key milestones: Paris agreement on climate change and Sustainable Development Goals by United Nations.Second, enterprises have understood that SDG mean a huge market and a new scope of opportunities. A new 12 trillion dollars market per year and 70 trillion dollars investment before 2030.Third, relevant investors have changed their perspective and therefore their way of seeking engagement on environmental and social issues. And finally, there has been an increase in regulation and soft-regulation related to this topics. Task Force on Climate - related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) or the High Level Expert Group from the European Commision are two good examples of it.

Digital or electronic payments remain on the rise due to the growing number of transactions in emerging economies. The consulting firm Capgemini and the bank BNP Paribas estimate that there will be €726 billion of transactions of this kind by 2020 – a 10.9% increase,  Europa Press reports.