Virtual Reality has been stealing the show until now, but Augmented Reality is on the brink of becoming a huge business. Success stories such as Pokemon Go and Snapchat have shown the technology’s potential, causing Facebook to spring into action.

The digital revolution has changed the rules, personal relations, business, communication and the way everyone uses their time. The impact of technology is always associated with achieving greater freedom, but it has also pushed us to levels of distraction and dependence that have changed how engage with the world.

The impact is profound, but hard to measure accurately. Sociologist and economist Manuel Castells believes that people, companies and institutions feel how profound this technological change is, “but when closely examined through rigorous empirical research, the speed and scope of the transformation turns out to not be exact.”

Technology is redefining how we bank – from mobile apps to online account management – we increasingly use digital means to make our money and data work harder for us.

 - Openpay is a Mexican startup that offers an advanced platform of physical and electronic payments for businesses. Created with software developers in mind, the platform offers a wide range of online payment solutions and functionalities, outstanding among which are its sophisticated anti-fraud models.

Currently, Openpay has a network of more than 15,000 payment reception points in Mexico, connected in real time through its Paynet network, and manages more than one million transactions a month. The Openpay platform is used by more than 1,000 businesses in Mexico, from startups to SMEs and large corporate clients.

- The synergies between BBVA Bancomer and Openpay will multiply the commercial capacities of both companies, complement their catalogue of products for corporate clients and allow them to strengthen their payment solutions.

- BBVA Bancomer supports the entrepreneur ecosystem through its Innovation Center and propels fintech companies with its Open Talent (OT) competition. It also promotes direct associations with startups to validate their business models and offers financial services to benefit customers. Openpay was a finalist in Open Talent 2015, in an event that involved 652 projects from 63 countries and close to 200 experts.

As part of BBVA Compass' promotional campaign, Check It Out, Houston-area client Derrick Russell was recently awarded $1,000 for depositing a one-penny check through the Mobile Deposit® feature on the BBVA Compass Mobile Banking app.

The creation model is the way the BBVA Group works to create amazing experiences for its customers. As the way customers engage with the bank evolves, so does BBVA, anticipating their needs. It’s a development model that involves designers, software engineers, data analysis experts, banking experts… all focused on delivering solutions for customers within nine months.

The Internet of Things is today a reality. Apart from the benefits it can provide to companies, the IoT will become a powerful tool in the fight for citizen security, given its many possible uses.

The magazine Compromiso Empresarial has chosen the BBVA Microfinance Foundation‘s gaming tool for team management as one of the 10 most innovative social initiatives in 2016. This is the fifth edition of this ranking, compiled with the collaboration of CAF- Development Bank of Latin America, which received 350 project submissions from Latin America and Spain.

There are around 170,000 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Uruguay. They create more than 60% of jobs and are responsible for more than 40% of the industrial, trade and services sectors’ production. The importance of this sector for the country’s economy has led BBVA Uruguay to join the regional project 'Camino al éxito' ('The Road to Success'), a program integrated in the BBVA Group’s Responsible Business Plan. The main goal is to increase the number of SME customers.

The Madrid-based startup Source{d} is developing an algorithm that analyzes millions of developers’ code to select those that best meet the needs of every company.