The week of the publication of second quarter 2017 results (2T 2017) begins and as it does, we remember the five keys to understanding a bank´s results. The following infographic shows how to interpret the most important figures.

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.

Garanti Bank signed an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for 5-year term funding in the amount of Euro 75 million equivalent under the Covered Bond Programme. Thanks to this financing, the first transaction settled with EBRD in TL and covered bond format, Garanti aims to boost the expansion of Green Mortgage loans and to protect the future generations with environmentally-friendly buildings.

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.

Ricardo Gómez Barredo was there for the birth of BBVA (through the merger of BBV and Argentaria), a Group he has been associated with for more than two decades.Now he is in charge of functions that are so critical to a bank like liaising with supervisors, working out financial information and reporting.Professionally, he describes himself as very demanding of himself. He thinks that the best part of his professional experience has always been “the people I’ve been lucky enough to work with”.

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.