Edmund Hillary was the first person to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1953 - a feat that brought him worldwide fame, but also changed his life. His relationship with the mountains was so intense that he once said, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” When asked about his hobbies, Ricardo Forcano (Zaragoza, 1977) answers right away, “the mountain.” It´s probably the best place to order ideas, propose new challenges and work as a team. All those experiences can be applied to the business world, and that’s what Ricardo Forcano is doing as head of the Talent and Culture area of BBVA.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila told international investors this Friday that “the quality of BBVA’s franchises, in strategic markets, provides resilience and contributes to the strong performance of our results.” He also believes that banks have some unfinished business: having a positive impact on peoples’ lives and businesses. BBVA is working on it.

BBVA has created the Global Patent Office (GPO), whose objective is to identify, during the Group's transformation process, the areas of innovative activity, in order to coordinate the efforts to protect BBVA’s intellectual property.

Seven Israeli startups took part in "Pitch Day" at the BBVA Innovation Center, where they presented the fintech proposals with which they seek to collaborate in the transformation of financial services, with the help of digital institutions like BBVA.

Drones, tractors with GPS and data transmission, driverless cars moving around factories…more and more products are reaching the supermarkets from agro-food companies with state-of-the-art technology.

At MoneyConf, the head of the venture capital fund Propel Venture Partners stressed “the importance of specialized firms, to avoid overfinancing and overestimating the value of companies”.

BBVA’s Global Head of Customer Solutions, Derek White, explained this morning that “It’s not longer about products, but about helping customers with their financial lives.” White participated in MoneyConf’s panel “Competition makes you smarter: Customer Centric banking,” where he exchanged ideas with Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana and moderator Andrea Rexer, finance editor at Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In a complex environment with interest rates at an all-time low, what business models make sense for both banks and customers? Finding the best idea that answers this question was the challenge for Open Talent Ideas, and the Garanti payment method team - BBVA’s bank in Turkey - won.

Regulators, technology providers and experts analyzed the role of cloud computing in the development and consolidation of digital banking during the Latin American Regulators seminar organized by BBVA Bancomer and the IDB.

For two days, global experts will discuss the future of banking, fintech firms, blockchain, and mobile payments. BBVA’s Global Executive Chairman will give the closing presentation at the event.