If you ask scientists in the field of artificial intelligence when they expect fiction to become reality and robots’ intelligence to exceed that of humans, they would likely say it’s right around the corner, sometime between 2030 and 2050.

The week of the publication of second quarter 2017 results (2T 2017) begins and as it does, we remember the five keys to understanding a bank´s results. The following infographic shows how to interpret the most important figures.

The BBVA Innovation Centre hosts a new edition of “Design Wednesday”. In it, experts address the role of design in customer interactions with products and services.

In Mexico City, BBVA held the first edition of EduFin Summit, a global event on financial education organized by the Center for Financial Education and Capabilities, which the bank established early this year. With this forum, BBVA is giving the global movement for financial education a significant boost, consolidating the bank’s role as a global leader.

Companies are facing the challenge of correctly interpreting information to create valid patterns they can apply to their businesses.

Senior executives from BBVA got the chance to meet with some of the USA’s most innovative and forward thinking financial technology businesses this week at the first tech summit hosted by BBVA-backed venture capital firm Propel Venture Partners.

The apps world continues to grow. In just a few years, apps have become smartphone users’ closest ally. They aren’t all as well-known as Instagram and Shazam, but they have the same potential.

Success in sales almost always comes down to communication. And in the competitive ecommerce universe, content marketing is the best way to engage with those browsing through the store.

Success in sales almost always comes down to communication. And in the competitive ecommerce universe, content marketing is the best way to engage with those browsing through the store.

The U.K. is convinced that London will continue to be Europe’s fintech capital and a global financial center after Brexit. But other European capitals are hoping to take its place. It will all depend on the long negotiation about to begin between the EU and the U.K.

Blockchain is paving the way for new ways of business for independent journalists. This is just the beginning of a revolution based on many of the principles of the sharing economy.

The television and film industries are using big data to make sure that their shows and movies are a hit with audiences and, more importantly, to prevent million-dollar losses from poor decisions.

BBVA is the first financial institution in Spain to launch the ‘Online Onboarding’ via mobile, which allows anyone to open an account in just a few minutes and start banking right away. This new service uses an innovative procedure that verifies a customer’s identity through a selfie and a video call.

18% of consumers are unable to rate the social commitment of companies due to a lack of awareness of the policies and actions that they develop. However, when asked to rate companies based on their performance other fields (products/services, leadership, innovation, etc), this percentage drops by 50%. This is one of the key takeaways of the 2016 CSR RepTrak® 100 report, recently released by consulting firm Reputation Institute within the framework of a webinar, in which BBVA also participated.

Brand or corporate journalism is a recent concept that BBVA has turned into a reality at bbva.com. The Group’s global website is also the new channel for BBVA’s contents, to ensure that the company’s voice, purpose and messages can be heard by its key stakeholders without intermediaries.

Tablets, smartphones, social media… There are an increasing number of channels available for communicating directly with the customer and learning more about them, as well as for customers to convey their message in a more personal way.

Have you ever stopped to think about all the data you generate throughout the day? It was the possibility of actually making use of all this data through numerous apps, records and data bases that gave rise to Big Data.

General financial literacy has always been the Achilles heel of Spaniards. It had to be the economic crisis that, precisely, exposed the population’s huge gaps in basic financial understanding.

Between April and June the BBVA Group posted the highest quarterly profit of the last 12 months, with €1.12 billion, up 58.4% from the previous quarter. Net attributable profit for the first half of the year stood at €1.83 billion, down 33.6% from the same period in 2015, due to the impact of exchange rates and the lack of corporate operations. Stripping out these two factors, profit grew 5.8% y-o-y

He has worked at BBVA for 17 years and has spent a decade abroad, living out of a suitcase. Even though he has participated in numerous projects in various regions, and even continents, he says his job is to “be transparent.”

BBVA will pay a dividend of €0.08 per share starting July 11th. The Board of Directors agreed yesterday to pay shareholders this amount. The net amount after deducting the 19% withholding tax will be €0.0648 per share.

Saul Rodríguez works in Global Corporate Communication and is very aware of social media’s power, not only to divulge information and create communities, but also to make people smile. We asked him to tell us about his projects, which he of course did in a social media format.

Hi. My name’s Raúl, I’m a communicator, Libra, my favorite color is blue and I travel around the world covering tourist experiences for my TV program in Paraguay.  Having said that, I want to start off this chronicle by being sincere. I’m one of those people who doesn’t understand anything about the banking world. I can’t tell a savings bank from a coffee machine. The first time I was asked if I wanted a current account, I asked if the current was to 110 or 220 watts. Yes –that’s the level of my ignorance.

British physicist Stephen Hawking received the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award for his work on galaxy formation. On the occasion of BBVA’s executive chairman visit to Cambridge to hand him the award, Hawking remarked that this was the first recognition bestowed on him for his work on galaxy formation and stated his optimism regarding the future of mankind.

BBVA Compass announced that José ‘Pepe’ Olalla has been tapped as its Head of Business Development, an interim post he has held since December 2015 and one that plays a key role in the bank’s ongoing digital transformation in the face of changing consumer demands.

If there is a name in Spain that is synonymous with adventure and exploring, it is without a doubt Miguel de la Quadra – Salcedo (born in Madrid on April 30, 1932). He went to the Amazon for the first time in 1960 and that’s where his tireless expedition career began. Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo led a life that could have been lived by three men at once – the athlete, the journalist and the adventurer – but he decided to pack it all into one.  In his work as a reporter for RTVE he directly witnessed the war in Congo, the coup against Salvador Allende in Chile and he was the first journalist to interview Che Guevara’s brother after his death.

BBVA Chairman Francisco González presented the book The Search for Europe: Contrasting Approaches, a work that collects the insights of twenty-three prestigious authors from different fields of knowledge into the present and the future of Europe and its integration project, a process with far reaching consequences, for not only the lives of the Europeans, but for all the citizens of the world.  

BBVA posted a net attributable profit of €709 million in the first quarter of 2016, down 53.8% from the same period a year earlier. Quarterly results were hindered by a number of factors, including the impact of exchange rates, lower results from NTI and the lack of corporate operations. BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila indicated that results will continue to grow gradually throughout 2016. Below you can find the most relevant data of the quarter:

• Income: Gross income stood at €5.79 billion (+14.9% year-on-year at constant exchange rates) driven by strong performance of recurring revenue (net interest income plus fees and commissions)

• Risks: The Group’s NPL ratio improved, closing at 5.3% at the end of the quarter, compared to 5.4% in December; coverage ratio remained stable at 74%

• Capital: BBVA reached a CET1 fully-loaded ratio of 10.54%, with 21 basis points of growth during the quarter

• Transformation: At the end of the quarter, BBVA Group’s digital customer base stood at 15.5 million (+20% y-o-y). Of these, 9.4 million are mobile clients (+45%)

BBVA’s strategic digital banking partner in the UK, Atom Bank, has opened its’ virtual doors to pre-registered customers – just 9 months after receiving its banking licence and 4 months after BBVA announced its 29.5% strategic stake.

Atom, which is aiming to launch the U.K.’s first mobile-only bank, is announcing the introduction of machine-learning software into its customer care team to enable fast in-app resolution of client queries.

Climber Carlos Soria, leader of the BBVA Expedition, is already at the Annapurna Base Camp. The team spent the past two weeks trekking to acclimatize, getting ready to take on Earth’s tenth highest peak in the best possible conditions. “The preparatory process we’ve completed in the past days will be key to our attempt to summit the Annapurna as quickly as possible. We’re ready to seize the first chance we have,” said Carlos Soria.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila explained BBVA’s main competitive advantages in a context of profit pressure on the financial sector and a complex macroeconomic environment: an attractive, customer-centric business model; a solid risk management model; a sound capital position; and superior earnings power. “BBVA is well positioned to take advantage of the current environment,” he indicated during his speech at the Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference in London attended by a large group of institutional investors from across the globe.

BBVA today launches the 8th edition of its BBVA Open Talent competition, which aims to find the brightest and best entrepreneurs who are changing financial services through digital innovation. In the last five years, over 3,250 companies have entered, with winners raising over €116 million in investments. Early entrants will be considered for participation at Wired Money 2016 which BBVA is sponsoring for the second year in a row.

– Quorum was over 62%

– Financial statements approved with support from more than 99% of the votes

Francisco González was re-elected Group Executive Chairman of BBVA, with over 96% of the votes during the Annual General Meeting held today in Bilbao. In 2013 he was re-elected with 90.9% of votes.

The key for a financial institution to survive in such a rapidly changing environment is to abide by ethics, according to BBVA Executive Director José Manuel Gónzalez-Páramo. In a conference on Companies and Public Goods held by the University of Navarra’s Entrerprise and Humanism Institute, José Manuel González-Páramo emphasized that “ethics is the keystone of the banking sector”.

US and EU representatives agreed to extend the current round of talks regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), started on February 22nd, two additional weeks. Both parties were clear about their satisfaction regarding the ground covered over the past days, and ratified their commitment to conclude an agreement in 2016.

BBVA signed a strategic alliance with Cisco today that will help the company in its digital transformation process, allowing Cisco to become its priority technology partner. The agreement seeks to foster connectivity and collaboration between BBVA Group clients and employees and provide networking solutions. This is the first of a series of alliances that BBVA is aiming to forge with strategic partners. BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila and Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins have taken part in the signing of the agreement.

London, Hong-Kong, Phoenix, San Francisco and Santiago de Chile are (in that order) the cities chosen for the third BBVA-El Celler de Can Roca Tour: a trip around the world. For 5 weeks, the Roca brothers and 40 members of staff from their restaurant will embark on a journey that will take them from Europe to the Asian continent and then across the Pacific to the U.S., then down the continent to the Chilean capital.

BBVA announces an increase in its financial technology (‘fintech’) fund to $250m and a partnership with Propel Venture Partners (Propel).  BBVA will invest its $250m in Propel’s funds as a limited partner, and Propel will manage the investment independently in a move designed to ensure the capital continues to be invested in the best digital financial services startups.

• Francisco González: “With this official opening, we stand by our long-term commitment to Mexico, because we believe in this great country, in the Mexican people and in their future”

• Enrique Peña Nieto: “I would like to acknowledge both the work and the commitment that an institution as important on a global scale as BBVA Bancomer is undertaking and showing in our country”

• The building’s construction is one of the pivotal milestones of the $3.5 billion investment plan that BBVA Bancomer announced in 2013.

• At 234 meters, the 50-story skyscraper is now the tallest building in Mexico’s capital

• From the new headquarters, the company will continue to drive the implementation of a new work model, based on innovation and digital banking

BBVA Executive chairman Francisco González and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto unveiled yesterday BBVA Bancomer’s new headquarters, in the heart of the Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma. The event included a fireworks show that could be seen from all across the city. The BBVA Bancomer Tower now stands as the tallest building in the city, and has claimed its spot as one of its architectural landmarks.

BBVA will propose the appointment of Sunir Kapoor and Andrew Stott as new independent board members during its Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. The Meeting will be held in Bilbao on March 11th, 2016, as notified in the Relevant Event containing the agenda and to which this press release is appended.

BBVA executive chairman Francisco González this morning commented on the bank’s results for 2015, pointing out that “BBVA showed its considerable ability to generate results.”