In a scenario of political and economic uncertainties and amid external shocks mainly caused by U.S. protectionism and China, the recovery of the Latin American economy continues apace, with growth expected to gradually accelerate and reach a forecast 2.1 percent in 2019 (Source: BBVA Research).

Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) replicate the movement of a financial asset or basket of financial assets such as indexes, commodities or currencies. An ETP is an “investment vehicle” that combines the advantages of shares, in that they are traded in the continuous markets of exchanges with an investment in a group of financial assets. This characteristic has made ETPs a very popular alternative investment.

The BBVA Trader platform offers users specialized content that affords them full market analysis for their trading operations. An example of one of the concepts dealt with in the platform is leverage.

True to its commitment to innovation, BBVA announced the signing of a €35 million flexible term loan with spanish-based multinational Cosentino. This is the first time this format has been offered in the Spanish market, and was conceived by BBVA to meet the financing needs of its customers.

Having successfully carried out the first pilots in the world of a loan and a corporate credit facility using blockchain, BBVA has signed a new loan with ACS using this technology. The deal shows that BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking is continuing to focus on an innovative financing model for its corporate clients.

Fund managers are easing their way into the digital world but will have to up the ante as customer experience and customized offers become a must for their survival.

On February 28, BBVA unveiled its climate change and sustainable development strategy ‘Pledge 2025’. A cornerstone of this pledge is the sector norms which enable the bank to address specific matters of sustainability with particular environmental and social impact (mining, energy, infrastructure and agribusiness) and provide clear guidance on the procedures to follow in the management of clients and transactions in these sectors. These rules embody the Commitment to Human Rights that BBVA took on board in 2008 and which has recently been updated.

AVANGRID has entered into a $2.5 billion syndicated sustainability-linked credit facility, the biggest green loan in the U.S. to date. In doing so, Iberdrola’s U.S. subsidiary follows its parent company’s lead and demonstrates its commitment to combating climate change. BBVA has acted as sustainable agent and ‘joint lead arranger’ for the deal.

The trade media Structured Retail Products (SRP) has recognized BBVA in six of eight categories for which the bank was nominated. In its 2018 awards publication, the organization underscores BBVA’s capabilities as a global structured products house for foreign exchange and interest rates. BBVA was singled out in the distributor category, winning best distributor performance in Peru and Mexico, best distributor in Peru, and was one of the finalists for best distributor in Mexico.

What does it mean when we say a bank is the ‘bookrunner’ for a deal? Or if a financial institution has acted as the ‘lead manager’ or ‘lead arranger’? These are just some or the roles that banks can play in bond issuances and loan transactions.

Alexis Thompson, Head of Global Securities Services at BBVA, explains what the securities services business within the investment banking sector consists of, what clients expect and what tasks it carries out.

BBVA has reaffirmed its leading position in sustainable finance by closing the first green loan deal with a company in the Spanish distribution sector, the Valencian cooperative Consum. The €5-million operation proves that this type of financing is not limited to major multinationals present in the capital market. Smaller enterprises also have access to it.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), BBVA took part in a conference on capital markets. What will they be like in the future? According to José Manuel González-Páramo, they will be “digital and sustainable”. Digital on the strength of innovation by technologies such as blockchain, automated advice and trading algorithms; and sustainable because they will help attract “green” finance.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay. In recent years it has opened the way to different areas of our lives, reaching what were previously unknown territories. This is not a single technology, but rather a set of construction blocks that act as catalysts for major advances, which is why BBVA is committed to an innovative approach based on data science and artificial intelligence to boost its capital markets business.

Today technology is taking giant steps forward and has become a fundamental part of our daily lives. Non-stop and increasingly powerful innovations provide us a huge array of new opportunities that are only a click away. One example is artificial intelligence, a domain that has extended into the financial field, becoming an agent of change, capable of revolutionizing a large part of the world’s financial markets.

Drawing on its skills, knowledge and experience as one of the most active banks in the sustainable finance sector, BBVA has been selected by Hera to help in the structuring and execution of the first RFC (revolving credit facility) loan in Italy. This is the first sustainable operation of these characteristics in the country. BBVA has acted as the sustainable agent, leading the operation valued at €200 million.

The ‘BBVA Latin America Conference’, held on May 2 and 3 in New York, is a yearly event hosted by BBVA that brings together public and private Latin American debt issuers and North American investors. In this year’s edition of the conference —the eighth— BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila, and BBVA Global head of Customer Solutions Derek White were some of the prominent figures who took the floor to share their insights into pivotal issues such as investments in Latin America, sustainable finance and banking innovation.

BBVA has signed a financing contract with Forestalia, Mirova, GE and ENGIE to develop the first 300 megawatts (MW) of wind power free of subsidies and incentives in Spain. The 9 wind farm complex, dubbed the Goya Project, will be built in the province of Zaragoza. The 300 MW were awarded in the first renewable energy auction in Spain, held in January 2016, in which Forestalia was the largest bidder. This is also the first green loan to be granted in Spain under the “Green Loan Principles” in which BBVA has coordinated the issue, with Altermia providing Second Party Opinion.

BBVA has signed a $400-million-dollar green loan with Iberdrola, the first green corporate loan to be formalized in Latin America. This reasserts BBVA’s commitment to sustainable financing by supporting the development and implementation of financial products in the green format.

Bonds and loans are financing instruments used at one moment or other by companies during the course of their existence. These are two conceptually different credit products that are sometimes confused. It is important to differentiate between both means of financing and understand their characteristics in order to know their true essence.

The way large corporations and institutional entities manage their finances has changed dramatically over the last decade and transaction banking has played a very important role in this transformation, as a result of both the boost given to the activity and the improvement of the relationship model with customers. The transformation was also affected by the recent financial crisis and has been enabled, to a large extent, by the use of new technologies.

Renovalia is the first company to secure a ‘green project finance’ loan to fund the development of a renewable energy project in Spain. BBVA acted as ‘green loan coordinator’ of this €74 million facility, which will allow the company to fund Project Wind, which envisages the construction of two wind farms, one in Lleida and one in Barcelona, with 70 MW of combined installed capacity.

What is transaction banking? It is the side of banking that addresses the operational needs and day-to-day transactions of business, corporate and institutional customers. It also provides cash management services where the short-term management of a company’s liquidity is a key, using instruments and services designed for the management of incoming and outgoing cash flows, international commerce, and asset management.

Getting into certain professional fields can be a difficult task. There are no exact formulas or specific studies that open the door to certain jobs. A clear example of this is financial product trader. This is an attractive career for many because of the chance it offers – not always feasible – of earning a lot of money in a short period of time. But this entails big unknowns, among which is the key question: How do I become a good trader?

A private company goes public when it lists its stock for the very first time in a stock exchange, where it can be bought and sold by the general public. This type of transaction is known as an Initial Public Offering, or IPO.

Yet another year, BBVA was named best investment banking in Spain and Mexico by U.S. publication Global Finance Magazine. Also, for the first time, BBVA secured a spot in the ‘Best investment bank’ and ‘Best bank for new financial technology’ categories in Latin America, thanks to its technological efforts and significant advances in digital transformation.

BBVA today announced its strategy around climate change and sustainable development, Pledge 2025. The strategy will help the bank meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Pledge 2025 will help the bank align its activity to a 2ºC Scenario and strike a balance between sustainable energy and fossil fuel investments and is based on three lines of action: financing, management and engagement.

BBVA has marked a new milestone in the sustainable finance business with the closing of the first global transaction in the insurance sector. MAPFRE has transformed its syndicated credit facility for 1 billion euros into sustainable finance with the cooperation of BBVA, which acted as Sustainable Agent in the transaction.

BBVA has teamed up with several global banks to become a member of the Standard Repackaging Documentation platform (SRD). This initiative is a response to investors’ demands for standardization of repackaging transactions. BBVA is the only Spanish bank involved.

The headlines about the U.S. dollar this year have underscored how complicated it is to predict the movement of any one currency in a global economy. They’ve gone from grim (“Dollar set for worst January in 30 years”) to triumphant (“Dollar claws back”) to deflated (“Dollar’s rebound fizzles”) in a matter of weeks.

Unique Experiences is a special program of BBVA in Switzerland, by which clients can access a wide range of experiences and services carefully selected to help them enjoy life and their patrimony. The program encompasses a range of areas such as lifestyle, health, education, innovation, culture and entertainment. It also seeks to bring clients closer to Switzerland, a country whose living standards have put it in the top positions in the rankings of quality of life around the world.

The global economy has changed significantly over the past few years, impacting decisively on the style and manner in which investors manage their wealth.

Alfonso Gómez joined the BBVA Group in 1994 and was appointed to head the Swiss branch in 2014. Born in Segovia, Spain, he has had an extensive career, holding positions on several continents. Since his arrival at Switzerland, he has been working to develop the best customer experience, based on a high-value offering and next-generation digital tools.

Switzerland is currently the world’s largest private banking center, accounting for 25% of the global market. The country has a deep-rooted wealth management tradition, offering the perfect combination of experience, precision and a strong work ethic within a highly unstable geopolitical environment.

Many people around the world choose to place part of their savings in investments outside their home country, in order to diversify their holdings. That’s why they put part of their capital in international financial centers. Switzerland is one of them.

Green loans have arrived in force on the world’s financial markets. The volume of these sustainable products, which up to now had appeared sporadically, has shown a marked increase since last year. BBVA ended 2017 as the most active company in green loans worldwide, with a total of 11 transactions in Europe and Latin America for clients in a range of sectors, and was the undisputed number one in Spain.

Iberdrola has signed two new sustainable syndicated loans for a total of 5.3 billion euros, the largest ever signed globally. BBVA has led these transactions by acting as a sustainable agent.

In the last couple of years the Latin American currency trading, FX, market has been in turmoil; after the devaluation of major Latam currencies in 2016, trading volumes have decreased and many of the global banks that used to lead the FX market in the region have left, allowing strong regional players, including BBVA, to step in and increase their market share.

BBVA has acted as a Green Agent for a green credit in the amount of 800 million euros for Red Eléctrica España S.A. (“REE”). This is the first syndicated green revolving credit facility in Spain, and also the first of its kind in the electric utilities sector.

BBVA Global Wealth held the second edition of its Next Generations Madrid program, intended for second generations of Private Banking customers. The purpose of the program is to bring value to customers’ families, providing them with a specific educational experience.

BBVA has been widely recognized for its capabilities in structured products in Latin America. Specialized publications such as Structured Products, Structured Retail Products and mtn-i have confirmed BBVA’s regional leadership in this business area, presenting the bank with numerous awards.

Garanti Bank was selected as the Best Retail Bank in Turkey in 2017 by World Finance Magazine, one of the world’s most prestigious business publications. This marks the third consecutive year that Garanti has won this award, making it the first Turkish bank ever to do so.

The growing demand for financial products that support sustainable economic, social and environmental development has created a need for tools such as green loans, which allow companies to finance initiatives that have a clear environmental impact.

A swap is an agreement for a financial exchange in which one of the two parties promises to make, with an established frequency, a series of payments, in exchange for receiving another set of payments from the other party. These flows normally respond to interest payments based on the nominal amount of the swap.

In today’s society, there is an increasing demand for sustainable growth and development. To respond to that demand, there are financial instruments such as social bonds, whose resources are by definition destined for projects that improve the social environment. This market has already reached 25.5 billion euros.

Antoni Ballabriga, Global Head of Responsible Business at BBVA, took part this Tuesday in a regional roundtable on the progress of sustainable financing, in an event organized in Switzerland by the UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in association with the Swiss Sustainable Finance platform (SSF).

BBVA and BBVA Bancomer are piloting an FX matching application developed by Calypso Technology, a leading provider of cloud based cross asset trading software solutions for the financial markets, and enterprise software firm R3. The application, which runs on R3’s Corda platform and is facilitated by Calypso’s cloud services, has already been used by the two banks to match a test FX trade.

BBVA Compass has closed a $5 million equity investment in Pathway Lending, becoming the largest investor in Alabama’s effort to build up small businesses in the state’s Appalachian region. Pathway Lending, a Community Development Financial Institution certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury, will operate the state’s new loan fund for small businesses in the 37 counties of Appalachian Alabama.

The words “wealth” and “tech” have come together to give rise to a new generation of financial technology companies that create digital solutions to transform the investment and asset management industry.