Last Thursday, BBVA launched its first public debt issue of 2017: A 1 billion euro 5-year senior unsecured bond. The bank completed the transaction with the lowest coupon in history (0.625%) for this type of product, with this maturity, for a Spanish issuer.

In its December 2016 Banking Outlook report, BBVA Research reviews the most relevant trends and developments in the banking sector. The report analyzes the current status of Spanish banks and also examines the changing regulatory context in the European financial sector.

Traditionally, regulation and supervision have played a key role in developing the banking sector. They have ensured its stability and solvency, the protection of its consumers and the improvement of its efficiency. Now, regulatory and supervisory authorities are faced with an additional challenge: to draw up a regulatory framework that achieves the right balance between promoting new digital value propositions and protecting against the risks inherent to the digitalization of financial services.

Bitcoin, the digital currency whose anonymity attracted drug dealers and tax evaders, is on a roll again. But after a renewed price spike that echoes its first speculative bubble three years ago, even many of the currency's backers warn that another sharp correction is likely to follow.

José Ángel Sánchez Asiaín, who stood out as a key figure in banking modernization, passed away on December 31 in Madrid at the age of 87.

The Dutch NGO PAX recently published a new edition of the report, “Don't Bank on the Bomb”, which documents and denounces the governments and banks around the world that are financing of companies producing nuclear weapons. The organization also annually publishes the report “Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions: A Shared Responsibility”, which focuses on financing of cluster bombs.

More than 300 BBVA Compass team members came together to set product and service development priorities for 2017 in the bank’s third U.S. Quarterly Planning meeting.

Europe must press forward even more urgently with its key financial reforms to face current challenges with more resilience, said BBVA’s Executive Board Director José Manuel González-Páramo this morning at a conference in Rome.

The European Central Bank (ECB) today announced the outcome of the third auction of TLTRO (targeted long-term refinancing operations). These long-term financing operations aim to stimulate lending in the euro zone. The demand for additional liquidity has reached 47.9 billion euros. In the first auction of the TLTRO-2, the demand for additional liquidity was 36 billion euros and, in the second, was 34 billion euros.

Both the European Union and the Spanish government have rolled out funding programs for startups. Here is a brief guide that will keep you from missing out on any good opportunities.