Integration with third parties opens a wide range of possibilities and businesses for emerging companies.

As with so many other aspects of life, 2016 was a strange year for technology, more likely to be remembered for what went wrong than for great innovation. Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 exploded, GoPro recalled its Karma drone after some started falling out of the sky and rampaging Pokémon Go players caused havoc.

As part of its ongoing efforts to accelerate transformation by growing its portfolio of digital businesses, BBVA has signed an agreement to acquire Mexican startup Openpay, a company that offers a broad range of advanced online payments solutions and functionalities.

The television and film industries are using big data to make sure that their shows and movies are a hit with audiences and, more importantly, to prevent million-dollar losses from poor decisions.

Blockchain technology is presented as a veritable revolution, which is going to have an impact comparable to the Internet. Alicia Pertusa, head of Digital Transformation in Investment Banking for BBVA and Carlos Kuchkovsky, CTO of New Digital Business for BBVA, discuss in this conversation the point at which this technology is at, its advantages and the barriers that still have to be overcome.

Europe must press forward even more urgently with its key financial reforms to face current challenges with more resilience, said BBVA’s Executive Board Director José Manuel González-Páramo this morning at a conference in Rome.