BBVA USA has unveiled its second product geared towards environmental sustainability, announcing a rate discount on secured term loans for fuel-efficient commercial vehicles.

The 2020 BBVA Classic, the annual charity game set to take place on March 27 between the Houston Dynamo and Cruz Azul, will benefit environmental advocacy group Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, the bank and the team announced today.

By Anita Dharapuram

On March 3, the winners of 2019 BBVA Momentum will arrive in Madrid, Spain to celebrate their entrepreneurial accomplishments and culminate this year’s program. A handful of the program’s winners hail from Turkey, Mexico, Colombia, and the United States - and one was recently recognized by Forbes magazine. 

A total of six community organizations in the Bryan-College Station area were awarded a sum of $22,500 in grants from the BBVA USA Foundation during a breakfast presentation on Thursday.

BBVA has selected 19 social entrepreneurs from across the U.S. to participate in its BBVA Momentum accelerator program, designed to help participants enhance their operations to impact the lives of more people.

In a press conference today, local nonprofit housing developer Avenue celebrated officially breaking ground on Avenue Center, a new mixed-use community resource center in Near Northside. Construction was kickstarted by a $1 million gift from the BBVA Compass Foundation, which will create opportunities for Avenue’s comprehensive homebuyer education and counseling programs at Avenue Center.

Earning an outstanding rating for CRA performance is a rare accomplishment -- fewer than 10 percent of banks earn that rating.  For BBVA Compass, it’s a clear reflection of the cultural shift that’s taken place within the organization over the past three years.

BBVA Compass launched its full financial education program for 2019 last week, on the heels of a successful four-month pilot program which wrapped in December, aiming to reach approximately 7,000 more people during its first full year in existence.

The National Association of Women Business Owners reports 11.6 million women-owned firms in the United States. Access to banking solutions, ranging from small business loans to venture capital and digital applications, has been critical in fueling that growth.

BBVA Compass today announced that the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta rated it “Outstanding” for CRA performance for its most recent examination period encompassing 2015 to 2017. The bank achieved “excellent performance” for community development lending and investments, and “high satisfactory” for service, which would translate to an overall “Outstanding” rating.

"Our vision of the world is marked by a sense of urgency, but also by a sense of opportunity. We need to re-imagine the role of banking in society. As banks we have to focus on a mission and creating a positive impact on people’s lives.” These are the words of BBVA’s Global Head of Responsible Business, Antoni Ballabriga, on a panel where he was joined by the European Commission Vice President, Vladis Dombrovskis, during the Sustainable Finance in Nordic-Baltic conference held in Helsinki.

The European Union continues to redouble its focus on sustainable finances and as part of this strategy the European Parliament last week held a forum attended by the main players in the financial world, among them BBVA through the presence of Antoni Ballabriga, Global Head of Responsible Business at the Bank.

The banking industry is taking another step towards laying the groundwork to tackle the climate change threat with a new set of tools. The groundbreaking methodologies published today, aimed at helping the banking sector understand and manage the adverse effects and the opportunities of climate change in their loan portfolio. The methodologies are the result of a joint effort by sixteen leading global banking institutions – including BBVA – and Acclimatise, a UK-based climate change advisory.

BBVA Compass has selected 16 social entrepreneurs from across the country to participate in its BBVA Momentum accelerator program, designed to help participants enhance their operations to impact the lives of more people.

The role the financial sector must currently play in the fight against climate change, the challenges posed of sustainable financing and the proposed series of objectives to facilitate green financing were some of the issues discussed by the Sustainable Financing Solutions panel. This debate closed the first edition of BBVA Sustainable Finance Forum, which was held on May 9 and brought together investors, entrepreneurs and public and private sector institutions with the aim of promoting sustainable development and the fight against climate change.

Iberdrola, Repsol and BlackRock representatives debated today about the need to integrate climate change into their strategies, speaking at the ‘BBVA Sustainable Finance Forum’ event, held today at BBVA’s headquarters in Madrid. The main takeaways were two: An actual commitment to sustainability is an opportunity, not a threat; and, more and more, investors demand companies to include sustainable criteria in their strategies.

Human rights are an essential element of BBVA's purpose: “to bring the age of opportunity to everyone.” Its Commitment to human rights, approved in 2018, sets the foundations for further progress in that direction, involving all the people who work in BBVA’s ecosystem.

Putting up a new calendar and starting a new year means taking stock of past achievements and setting new goals. In the area of Responsible Banking, BBVA is ready to take on new challenges, in order to continue making strides in responsible financing, digital transformation, human rights and other important areas.

Dr. David Ferguson moved to San Antonio, Texas a little less than a decade ago to find a warm place to plant his roots with his family. Little did he know that his business would heat up shortly thereafter.

A proposed new law would require Spanish companies to increase the non-financial information in their management reports and expand content on corporate governance in their annual reports. The bill aims to measure, supervise and manage companies’ performance and their impact on society and the environment.

BBVA is collaborating with CSR Europe to translate the “Blueprint for Embedding Human Rights in Key Company Functions” into Spanish. This manual uses practical examples and specific guidelines to help companies incorporate human rights into their business.

As a partner in the Spanish Network of the United Nations’ Global Compact, BBVA works to promote sustainability and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). United Nations Day provides a time to recall the role companies play in peoples’ lives and the need for them to make a firm commitment to creating a better future.

Consumers might see their products at grocery stores across Texas, on airplanes, or at their factory nestled in Houston’s historic East End, an up-and-coming community undergoing a rebirth. Pita Pal Foods, LP is much more than a company producing a suite of Mediterranean products and gourmet foods:  it’s a symbol of how far East End has come.

BBVA has joined a group of 14 banks that have made a commitment to the United Nations Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) to implement the recommendations on financing and climate change published by the Financial Stability Board in July in the framework of the G20.

Garanti Bank believes that for any economy to achieve further growth, the participation of women in the labor force is crucial. Women must be encouraged to be entrepreneurs, and women- owned businesses must be supported. Garanti took action in 2006, becoming the first private bank to define  women entrepreneurs as a separate client segment. "To empower women entrepreneurs", Garanti Bank has had a sustainable Women Entrepreneurs program over a decade. In this respect, the activities focus on four core areas; access to finance, encouragement, education and penetrating new markets.

Yesterday, Tradebe obtained the world’s first green syndicated financing in term loan format, for a total of €265 million. The transaction was signed by 11 national and foreign financial institutions with strong oversubscription under BBVA’s leadership as Facility and Green Agent, Coordinator and Sole Bookrunner.

June 5 is World Environment Day, a UN initiative to raise awareness about the need to take care of the planet. BBVA will illuminate some of its most emblematic buildings in green as a gesture to signify its commitment to this cause.

Women still have a long way to go in Latin America and data is the key to driving social policies than will put an end to inequality. This was the principal conclusion reached by the Fundación Microfinanzas BBVA, (Microfinance Foundation BBVA) during its participation in CSW61, the largest United Nations meeting on gender inequality and the empowerment of women.

BBVA celebrates International Working Women’s Day with further progress as regards work/life balance, entrepreneurship and professional promotion. This is the right time to look back on one year of initiatives that promote female talent and try to mitigate the social injustices that affect women.