BBVA was distinguished in the “e-Commerce Awards Paraguay 2015” as best bank in the category of “Financial Services and Online Banking”, organized by the Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce and coordinated locally by the Paraguayan Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CAPACE) and the Paraguayan Industrial Union.

BBVA is the first bank in Spain to hold an international developer competition, known as ‘datathon’, inviting developers to build new services, applications and contents based on its card transaction data. Innova Challenge provides third parties with data from cards and BBVA point-of-sale terminals in Madrid and Barcelona, in an anonymous way and in compliance with privacy regulations. This initiative is a first step to open the BBVA platform in order to promote innovation inside and outside the bank.

The winners of BBVA Open Talent Latin America have been announced. Bitnexo was chosen for its blockchain-based payments solution for companies trading with Asia, and Destacame.cl, which has already been recognized with the Special Financial Inclusion Award, won top honors for its system which creates credit risk profiles based on bill payment histories for basic services.

BBVA has opened a representative office in Jakarta (Indonesia), through which it will help Spanish companies enter this market with massive potential. The new office, which started operating at the end of August, also aims to be a strategic platform for detecting business opportunities in the country.

BBVA is now the leading shareholder in Garanti, Turkey's largest bank in terms of market capitalization. After completing the transaction announced last November to acquire an additional 14.89% holding, the BBVA Group now owns to 39.90% of Garanti. Francisco González is in Istanbul due to the closing of the transaction and the appointment of the new Garanti CEO.

Gema Sacristán heads the Financial Markets Division at the Structured and Corporate Finance Department at the IDB, the area responsible for development and capital markets, financing foreign trade, and relations with financial intermediaries –mainly banks and mutual funds.