Latin America has to foster the right conditions to strengthen its digital ecosystem. However, it faces an obstacle: the digital gap that separates it from other regions in the world. How can this gap be reduced? At a forum of “multi-Latina” companies in Santander, Eva Piera, the Head of Institutional Relations at BBVA stressed that regulation is the key.

BBVA has decided to move forward the publication of its second quarter 2017 results to July 27, a day earlier than originally scheduled, in order to facilitate its coverage, given the large number of presentations in the sector the following day.

Argentina and Brazil are finally pulling out of recession and driving the economic growth in Latin America as a whole this year, despite the slowdown in other countries in the region. According to BBVA Resarch’s ‘Latin America Economic Outlook’ Q3 report, the region will grow 0.8% in 2017 and 1.7% in 2018.

BBVA Frances has completed a capital increase of 75.8 million shares, including 66 million ordinary sares, and the remainder in shares offered to investment banks through a greenshoe option. At closing market prices, the transaction was valued at $400 million.  The BBVA Group affiliate will use the transaction to support the bank’s growth, taking advantage of the improved outlook for Argentina´s economy and financial system.

The financial crisis has had dire consequences on the banking sector’s landscape.  Of the 8,600 entities that operated in Europe in 2008, only 6,500 remained at the beginning of this year.  In addition, these banks now have to operate under a regulatory framework that’s much stricter than the one that existed before the crisis, in a market that has also changed.  All this is leading European banks to shift their business models.  Do they now have a more retail-minded profile than before the crisis?  That’s what it looks like.

BBVA has signed the first green loan in the project finance format with the Italian energy company Terna. The funding has been structured into a loan A for 56 million dollars awarded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and a loan B for 25 million dollars entirely subscribed by BBVA, which has also headed the green structuring of the funding and acted as the Green Loan Coordinator.