In spite of the boom in the popularity of mobile banking, physical channels still account for 28% of the revenues in the financial system, and this figure is expected to hit 32% by 2020.

2016 is the year of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Hieronymus Bosch. These three masterminds are a hot conversation topic all over the world. Those who don’t want to wait for the Bosch exhibit in the Prado Museum in May, sponsored by the BBVA Foundation – or who need to refresh their knowledge can, thanks to these four mobile apps.

Big Data is once again the hot topic of Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress. The challenge no longer lies in how to analyze vast amounts of data to give us a global view of society, but how to convert this information into user experiences.

With 40% of its population under 25 and a 95% cell phone penetration rate at the end of 2014, Turkey has positioned itself as a highly attractive market for mobile banking.

A  few months ago, I left Simple, the company I co-founded in 2009, took some time out  - including a visit to India with my daughter Asha- and then joined BBVA in a newly created-role as Head of Open APIs. At parties, when talking about the move, I often get quizzical looks asking “Why?” Why would I leave a young, fast-growing financial business that I founded, and go and work for a bank?

The firm Redmond has opened registration for the fourteenth edition of Imagine Cup, the technology competition with which Microsoft challenges students worldwide to innovate through technology.

A man, in the 25-34 age range. This is the profile of the users that are more likely to block ads in their mobile devices. Up to 37% of mobile internet users have implemented some fort of ad-blocking technology, according to a report by Global Web Index.

PayPal's membership of the National Entrepreneurs' Institute network has provided them with ongoing insights into what new companies need and allowed them to innovate to meet these requirements. René Salazar of PayPal is one of the 33 Mexican innovators interviewed for the eBook Hablan los protagonistas (The key players speak).

Bitcoin and the blockchain protocol have achieved a system that enables the exchange of value between two parties unknown to each other in a swift and effective way, without the need for intermediaries. Despite its immaturity and the many challenges it involves, the financial industry has set its sights on this technology, that can offer a great opportunity for generating new banking services that are more agile, less expensive and more favorable for its customers.

Macarena Peña, Business Development manager of BBVA's New Digital Businesses area, is responsible for seeking the opportunities related to blockchain. Peña explains in this interview how this technology works and the challenges it poses for the banking sector. In her opinion, there are only two things preventing banks from beginning to offer Bitcoin services: regulation and real customer demand.

The bank is launching the La Revolución de las Pequeñas Cosas (The Revolution of Small Things) campaign, where it will present some of the innovations that are changing the way in which customers interact with the bank, such as remote signature, activation and deactivation of cards, mobile payments or calls identified through the app. Carlos Torres, BBVA's chief operating officer, said that “these new tools will managers and customers to have a much richer communication. With these small things, customers will have a much better experience based on comfort and convenience.” It is a further step in a different model of banking, where managers provide advice to customers through face-to-face, remote or digital channels, according to their demands, with the aim of generating the best possible customer experience.