Gone are the days where verifying your identity meant photocopying your ID or showing your face in person alongside your driver’s license. Identity verification is easier thanks to camera-enabled smartphones.

It might seem like a strange question to be asking, but given the multiple elements that drive the success of a bank, and given also that increasingly location is a key determining factor in how you deliver great customer experience, its an important topic.

Peer-to-peer payments, or P2P, have become a popular way of quickly and easily paying family and friends using a mobile device or home computer.

Are banks going to withstand the challenge of the big tech players and indeed beat them at their own game? It's a question that banks all over the world are working on but for two of the leading digital banks in the world —BBVA and Citi— it's more a question of how far do ‘we’ want to go.

At BBVA Open Summit, Ricardo Forcano, BBVA's Global Head of Talent and Culture; and Rob Brown, Global CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at BBVA, chatted with the representatives of two startups that are working to leverage blockchain and AI technologies to enable new decentralized ways of working.

BBVA and Das-Nano demonstrate the potential that can come out of alliances between small and big business. Veridas represents a milestone in the development and launch of innovative payment solutions and user identification at BBVA Group. "Our technological developments are on par with the best in the world," says Eduardo Azanza, CEO of Veridas.

This week, a quick wrap-up of the top fintech stories:

The issue is no longer about using data, but doing it in a responsible manner that also has a positive impact on users’ lives.  This was one of the most relevant topics discussed during the second day of BBVA Open Summit, where Derek White, Global Head of Client Solutions at BBVA, stressed that user confidence is the key to success in this new digital playing field.

Continuing to notch wins for its mobile banking app, BBVA Compass Mobile Banking was recently recognized as one of the top five banks in mobile deposit user experience in the 2018 Mobile Deposit Benchmark Report. The report, conducted by fintech and digital commerce research firm Futurion, was sponsored by Mitek, a global leader in mobile capture and digital identity verification solutions.

The partnership paves the way for the development of a startup studio in London, reinforcing BBVA's strategy to be part of the fintech ecosystem and develop products and services for the new era of digital banking.