Financial and commercial services

Bonus, Garanti BBVA’s most popular credit card, is now celebrating its 24th anniversary. Bonus also happens to be a credit card platform, having amassed some 18 million users and eight partner banks.

Last Friday, the Chair of BBVA formally opened the new Miami office of BBVA Global Wealth Advisors (GWA), BBVA’s U.S. registered investment advisory unit. Carlos Torres Vila met with the team at this new office, comprised of over 30 professionals.

The contingent convertible capital instruments (CoCos) also known as Additional Tier 1 bonds are  hybrid bonds that combines debt and equity elements. Its defining characteristic is that it may be converted into shares if the CET1 capital ratio drops below a specific level.

BBVA Global Wealth Advisors, Inc. (BBVA GWA), the U.S. subsidiary and registered investment advisor (RIA) of Madrid-based BBVA, has selected BNY Mellon's Pershing as its clearing and custody provider. BBVA GWA’s advisory clients will access broker-dealer services from Pershing Advisor Solutions (PAS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNY Mellon. PAS is an SEC-registered broker-dealer, member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA), and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

The Turkish central bank recently granted Garanti BBVA an operating license for its new subsidiary, Garanti Payment and Electronic Money Service, Inc., effective February 15, 2024. The innovative new company will begin offering a selected group of customers a beta version of its digital payment solutions under the TAMİ brand in March.

BBVA has earned The Banker 2023 awards for Best Private Bank in Peru and Best Private Bank for Customer Service in Latin America, while also earning the ‘Highly Commended’ special mention in the Best Private Banking in Latin America and Mexico categories. The magazine held a very positive view of the customer relationship model of BBVA’s private banking business, which is especially important amid the current market uncertainty.

BBVA's CEO Onur Genç said that "In the future, we expect economic growth in our main markets, despite the context.” He also stressed that BBVA’s digital strategy has proven successful. One example is the bank's model in Italy. "In one or two years we will consider expanding this model to one or two new markets," he said Tuesday, during his participation at the 30th Financial Sector Meeting, hosted by Spanish daily ABC and Deloitte.

BBVA’s Turkish unit has taken a step forward in its strategy to boost automotive sales over digital channels with the launch of a new digital loan for Renault and Dacia brand vehicle purchases. Now on offer to businesses and the self-employed via Garanti BBVA’s website and the smartphone app, the bank’s new financial product provides an end-to-end digital experience.

Iberpay, Swift, BBVA and several international banks have successfully completed the first pilot to process, in a real environment, instant payments between different currency areas. Their ultimate goal is to improve these international payments involving currency exchange in terms of speed, transparency, cost, availability and accessibility.

Openpay, the BBVA Group's digital payments company, is positioning itself in the acquiring business in Latin America, with its annual volume of transactions processed in the region to reach 360 million by the end of March 2023. This exponential growth is the result of technological innovation in payment processes and the synergy it has established with the global financial institution, which has made it one of the main digital payment processing companies.

BBVA has been honored as the Best Bank in Argentina in the 'The World's Best Banks 2023 - Latin America' awards presented by the financial magazine Global Finance.

In 2021, seven banks, with BBVA as the only Spanish bank, participated in the launch of Swift Go. There are currently over 600 banks in 120 countries that offer this solution for low-value payments, streamlining the collection of payment for services to cross-border clients for SMEs, and making it easier for individuals to buy online in other countries. 85 percent of the payments made on this service are completed in three minutes or less.

Türkiye Garanti Bankası A.Ş., Garanti BBVA, announced its financial results for the year ending on December 31, 2022. The bank’s net income stood at TL 58.51 billion, while asset size was TL 1.3 trillion.

Garanti BBVA customers are now able to use the Garanti BBVA mobile app and Internet Banking to access information from their accounts at other banks. The regulation of open banking has made this a possibility. Customers can view their account activity and balances without having to log into each bank separately, and can even transfer money between accounts.

BBVA has reached an agreement with BAC Credomatic that will benefit clients of both banks, thanks to wider geographical coverage for their cash management operations. Companies using BBVA Pivot will be able to make payments and transfers with their subsidiaries, customers and suppliers in six new Central American countries from the same cash management solution, which will now integrate BAC accounts as if they were BBVA's. Just one year after its launch, Pivot already has 1,500 clients and expects to reach a transaction volume of 680 billion euros by the end of 2022.

The BBVA Board of Directors approved Wednesday the bank adhering to the measures included in the new  Code of Good Practice (CBP in Spanish) to help customers at risk of vulnerability with mortgages, as well as the expansion of the Code of Good Practice, which has been in force since 2012.

BME, through Iberclear, BBVA and the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), have completed the first bond issuance in Spain listed in a regulated market and registered using blockchain technology developed by ioBuilders. This platform could serve as a basis for future issuances in Spain and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mass Receivables Finance allows BBVA clients to get advances on their accounts receivable portfolios. This solution is aimed at clients with highly pulverized portfolios, where the amount concentration per debtor is very small and the historical behavior is stable and predictable.

The EIB Group, comprising the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF), has signed a new asset-backed securities (ABS) purchase agreement with BBVA. The deal encompasses several transactions through a single securitization, with a structure designed to achieve optimal efficiency. In addition, the EIB Group signed an agreement with BBVA for a €54 million synthetic securitization under the European Guarantee Fund (EGF) program.

BBVA has launched a new card in Spain as part of its Aqua range - characterized by offering a dynamic CVV for each purchase and no printed number - that combines maximum security with the possibility of paying in installments for up to three months, with no interest or deferral fees. As a result, BBVA is breaking into the new ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) payment method with a product that helps its customers to make their payments in a convenient and flexible way.

BBVA’s Turkish unit consolidates its lead in innovative digital payment solutions by adding a new dimension to card transactions with digital receipts, a first in the Turkish banking sector.

BBVA has closed its first balance sheet synthetic securitization of a project finance loan portfolio. This is a transfer of risk to institutional investors Alecta and PGGM that allows the bank to free up 80% of the capital on a portfolio of project loans that will remain on the bank's balance sheet.

The reform of the benchmark interest rates known as InterBank Offered Rates (IBOR) is one of the most significant financial reforms at present. It was driven by both international organizations  (IOSCO and FSB) and regulators (Benchmarks Regulation 2016/1011), with the goal of making the market more transparent and robust. This has led to the incorporation of substantial changes in the interest rates used as benchmarks in the operations of financial and non-financial institutions.

BBVA comes first in the ranking of the most influential brands in the financial technology conversation on social networks, created by Onalytica. This company, specialized in connecting brands with influencer communities, highlights BBVA for being the first company of reference in the creation and generation of fintech thought leadership content on.

In 2019 BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking took a decision to boost its equities business for institutional and corporate clients. Since then the bank has been working on two vectors: on one hand, developing its equity investment products factory; and on the other, revamping its digital solutions for product distribution. In this line, and to further advance in its growth plan, the BBVA global equities business opens two trading and sales hubs in Hong Kong and in New York.

Sending money from one side of the globe to the other is apparently very simple, but cross-border payments pose a real challenge. Making international transfers quickly and safely requires a complex structure in which relationships with other financial institutions are essential. The International Financial Institutions area at BBVA has a team of bankers that promotes the creation of a global network of banks that provides customers with the possibility of making international investments and transactions.

ALCO portfolios are one of the main tools available to banks to manage some of the structural risks on balance sheets (liquidity risk and interest rate risk) and, as a secondary objective, to contribute to the stability of earnings generation. They are a portfolio of financial assets, mainly composed of government bonds, which is governed by the bank's Assets and Liabilities Committee (ALCO).

José Luis Elechiguerra, a chemical engineer, born in Mexico and with more than 12 years of experience at BBVA, recently took on the role of the Global Head of Engineering and Organization at the BBVA Group.

Recently arrived from BBVA USA where he was in charge of the Client Solutions area, Elechiguerra has accepted the responsibility of being the technological enabler for the bank’s strategy. The way he sees it, without technology it is impossible to talk about sustainability, or helping customers make the best financial decisions, or any other objective set by the BBVA Group. His greatest challenges include consolidating the global application development platform, continuing to explore the potential of cloud computing, helping to make data available to be a smarter bank, and further developing the agile work model so that it expands across the entire organization.

All of this, while continuing to watch the major digital competitors and fintech companies in the rearview mirror - from whom he has learned that banks must be faster in responding to customers’ new demands, as Elechiguerra explains in this interview.

BBVA’s Shanghai branch has closed its first corporate loan in the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB) with Toyota Motor Finance China. The loan is a short term working capital loan to support Toyota’s corporate activity in the country. The transaction represents an important milestone for BBVA as it is the first one that the bank executes in the local currency after obtaining its renminbi licence in China.

Asia has become the world’s fastest growing economic region of the 21st century and currently plays a critical role in the global supply chain. According to figures provided by BBVA Research, between 2011 and 2021 the region generated 60 percent of global economic growth and one in every two million dollars of investment. And this contribution is expected to increase to 65 percent between 2017 and 2027. This growing trend is driving the global presence of Asian multinational companies as well as the expansion of global multinationals into Asia, where 43 percent of the 5,000 largest companies of this type are currently present. The region represents an important export center and a very attractive domestic market.