In his address during the Institute of International Finance’s Spring Meeting in Madrid, BBVA Executive Chairman Francisco González stressed that opening the technological platforms to collaboration with startups and a progressive cloud migration will be critical to the future of the banking sector.

The Institute of International Finance (IIF) today held its first Regtech Innovation Lab, hosted by BBVA, bringing together IIF member firms and public sector officials to connect with regtech firms offering new technology solutions to growing regulatory and compliance challenges for financial institutions.

Regtech is the new concept that is revolutionizing financial technology. Regtech is paving the way for a new wave of startups that, leveraging technologies such as cloud computing or big data, are looking to save banks a lot of the time and resources they devote to ensure regulatory compliance.

Spain’s corporate sector is the most endebted in Europe, and for most companies, banks have traditionally been the main source of funding.  For many this continues to be the case – particularly as in the current cero interest rate environment banks have become more competitive and less expensive. However, for those corporates looking to diversify their funding sources, or in search of longer tenors, a high yield bond issuance may be a good alternative.

Investors, customers and society in general are demanding increasingly higher levels of transparency. There is also regulation accompanying these new demands, as illustrated by the EU directives on non-financial information that will become applicable in 2017.

The financial sector is the biggest investor in technology. But to be able to continue doing so and increase that competitive advantage it must be up to date. The event on computing technologies in the financial sector held at the BBVA Innovation Center in Madrid addressed the different technological paths that the financial ecosystem needs to follow to make the most of innovation.