It goes without saying that Europe has lagged behind other world powers in many of the technological races of recent decades: from the design of smartphones and the operating systems that control them to the development of artificial intelligence applications, e-commerce platforms or social networks, among other areas of competition. But there is a new race, still in its early stages, in which Europe seems determined not to be left behind: the issuance of CBDCs (central bank digital currencies), which are intended to be an electronic version of cash now that banknotes and coins are in clear decline as a means of payment.

The Mercury library stores the code that BBVA's data scientists reuse to develop analytical models embedded in a range of financial products. In line with the open source philosophy, the bank has published Mercury on Github, a code hosting platform for version control and collaboration. This means other programmers will be able to use Mercury code in their work, which will help drive fintech innovation and further evolve the library with contributions from the community.

Garanti BBVA Mobile, Türkiye's most widely used banking application, maintains its leadership among private banks for the services it provides to individual customers and corporate clients.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and BBVA are set to make it easier for startups with innovative and sustainable value propositions to get access to financing. The two institutions have concluded an agreement under the InvestEU guarantee programme whereby the EIF will grant a €200 million guarantee to enable BBVA Spark (BBVA’s specialised startup initiative) to strengthen its support for startups, helping them with their expansion plans.

The bank has signed a collaboration agreement with the Legendaryum Metaverse to explore how immersive digital environments could change the remote relationship model both between internal areas and with customers. BBVA has opened a remote meeting room in Legendaryum to analyze the potential of these spaces and how they change the way users relate to each other and help in the design of specific banking services.

The Markets in Cryptoassets (MiCA) Regulation is the EU regulation governing issuance and provision of services related to cryptoassets and stablecoins. Adopted on April 20, 2023, by the European Parliament, MiCA is the first and only legislation of its kind in the world and leads the way for other jurisdictions. MiCA will enter into force at some point between mid-2024 and early 2025.