The BBVA Foundation has distinguished Turkish economist Daron Acemoglu with its Frontiers of Knowledge award. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Acemoglu was the first economist to prove that there are institutions that generate prosperity and others that hinder development.

BBVA has agreed to acquire 9.95% of Turkiye Garanti Bankasi from Dogus Group for approximately a total of 3.32 billion Turkish lira (€859 million), increasing its stake in Turkey’s largest bank by market capitalization to 49.85%. The acquisition of the additional stake would boost BBVA Group’s net attributable profit by about €165 million in 2018, according to analysts’ consensus for Garanti’s earnings.

The political upheaval that marred and engulfed the country’s public life during the first five years of the 1930s, ended leading Spain right towards where some visionaries’ had predicted it irretrievable would: a full-blown civil war.  The succession of controversial events that plagued the first half of 1936 contributed to turn Spanish society into a tinderbox under a stifling political climate. On July 18, General Francisco Franco issued an official statement, announcing the beginning of his uprising against the Second Republic’s current legality.

On Wednesday, BBVA signed a green loan in favor of Iberdrola for 500 million euros. In addition to being the first operation of this type for an energy sector company, this agreement involves the highest sum as of this date.

A bank’s markets division, also known as its Treasury, is part of its wholesale banking business. It is a highly specialized area that seeks to meet institutional and corporate customers’ investment and risk coverage needs. The retail banking area serves individual customers and also receives support from the markets area to design and manage products and manage the associated risks.

The usual “known unknowns” continue to be alive and new ones could join this year. In the short term, the anti ISIS offensive continues and still far from being solved. Meanwhile the long lasting conflict between Russia and Ukraine looks to escalate. North Africa and the Middle East will continue to be the main hot spots in 2017, but higher political and geopolitical uncertainties could arise all over the world. The rise of populism and constrains to the flows of people (anti-immigration) and trade (protectionism) will challenge the international rules and globalisation. The new agenda by the US administration and the response of China, Russia and the Middle East, as well as uncertainties in Europe (elections and the Brexit) will continue to shape the dynamics of the geopolitics of the coming years.

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