Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are everyday topics that have emerged as a new form of global economy. Thus, BBVA in Switzerland is launching Blockchain to go, a series of educational pills to provide people and companies with the necessary knowledge to enter this new world with confidence and security.

In 2021, seven banks, with BBVA as the only Spanish bank, participated in the launch of Swift Go. There are currently over 600 banks in 120 countries that offer this solution for low-value payments, streamlining the collection of payment for services to cross-border clients for SMEs, and making it easier for individuals to buy online in other countries. 85 percent of the payments made on this service are completed in three minutes or less.

The benefits of blockchain technology and tokens, popularly associated with cryptocurrencies, go well beyond the fintech world. The traceability, security, speed and transparency of blockchain, in addition to its relatively lower cost, mean that this technology offers valuable benefits in many aspects of daily life, such as streamlining bureaucratic procedures, monitoring daily habits or giving people tighter control of their digital identity. The report ‘Tokenise Europe 2025,’ in which BBVA took part, discusses the benefits of 'tokenizing' the European economy.

BBVA is giving a boost to its Pivot Commercial Cards platform by adding support for  Mastercard cards expense management. This platform allows greater control over the use of corporate cards by simplifying the review and authorisation processes for expenses. It already manages daily purchases for more than 85,000 employees of client companies using BBVA's corporate cards across eight countries.

BBVA joins Banca March, Banco Santander, CaixaBank, Generali, Inetum, Línea Directa Aseguradora, MAPFRE, Repsol, Unicaja Banco and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, the entities that launched Dalion in 2020. The project works on an innovative digital identity management model based on blockchain, which allows each person full control of their data.

BBVA has chosen Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), to take the most sophisticated operations of the Corporate and Investment Banking area (BBVA CIB) to the cloud. Specifically, the new platform provides greater computing power to make calculations related to financial markets faster, more accurate and more efficient.

Jose Luis Elechiguerra, Global Head of Engineering at BBVA, faces 2023 with a focus on continuing to evolve the technology platform to provide new capabilities that allow us to offer the best solutions to customers. To do this, he maintains his commitment to disruptive technologies such as the cloud, artificial intelligence, big data or biometrics, without losing sight of the digital regulatory framework, as he mentioned in the CIO Spain interview.

The growing demand for digital financial services around the world has brought with it an increase in exposure to digital crime and fraud. With 47.8 million digital customers worldwide, BBVA has put its customers' protection and trust as a fundamental pillar of its strategy to combat this situation. In 3 years, the bank has managed to prevent up to 75% of fraud, strengthening customer protection.

In times of uncertainty, innovation has the potential to change the stakes in favour of humanity. From more sustainable solutions in nutrition or energy to revolutionary applications of neuroengineering, the technological trends that will shape 2023 are set to provide answers to major global challenges. With the help of futurists and experts, BBVA Spark, BBVA's unit focused on helping high-growth companies, selects five technologies that will have a decisive impact in the coming months.

At the 18th edition of the ‘IMI Conference Turkish Contact Center Awards’, Garanti BBVA was recently presented the award for the ‘Best Digital Solution’. The event was held as part of the Turkey Communication Center Days. All sectors using call center services participated in the competition.

BBVA has explored the potential of blockchain technology as a major catalyst to create value in finance 2.0 for the past six years and is confident of its ability to build a more advanced society in economic and social terms. Alfonso Gómez, CEO of BBVA Switzerland,  spoke recently at the Fifth Blockchain and Digital Asset Forum hosted by online publication El Confidencial and sponsored by Grant Thornton, Allfunds, Criptan and Metrovacesa. Alfonso explained the key points of digital assets, discussed the role and responsibilities of traditional banks in this new space, and pointed out the opportunities that are now emerging.

You can watch the event delayed here.

From the former headquarters of BBVA in Bilbao, the B Accelerator Tower entrepreneurship centre serves as a meeting point for financial institutions, entrepreneurs and investors. A space for conceiving the services and solutions of the future that does not forget its past: the walls of the Torre Bizkaia bear witness to the innovation of the last few decades.

Investor interest in the healthcare innovation market is reflected in record funding numbers and a myriad of opportunities for startup growth and collaboration. However, it is not all plain sailing for entrepreneurs in the sector, who face challenges such as the need to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded landscape.

Machine learning, metaverse and chatbots are some of the technologies that stimulate and facilitate learning in a virtual environment with great potential. Edtech startups, including some thirty unicorns, are confronting the digital divide to achieve the democratisation of knowledge thanks to the Internet and are coming up with innovations to motivate students in front of the screen.

The southern Swiss city of Lugano has stepped up cryptocurrency use and is developing new infrastructure to adopt Bitcoin, Tether and its own LVGA token as legal tender. In the coming months, Lugano residents will be able to use cryptocurrencies to pay their taxes and make purchases at more than 200 local businesses.

Fast Company has included BBVA AI Factory in its annual list of ‘Best Workplaces for Innovators.’ BBVA’s artificial intelligence (AI) center was ranked 40th in the world and first in the category of companies with fewer than 100 employees for fostering knowledge-sharing among employees and supporting female talent.

The British publication The Banker, part of the Financial Times Group, has selected BBVA as the best digital bank in Europe and Latin America in its Innovation in Digital Banking Awards. The specialized magazine also granted a third prize in this edition for the best Bank/Fintech Partnership, specifically to Veridas' biometric solution for BBVA Mexico's pensioner customers.

The emerging company will work on a technological solution to boost the development of synthetic data. They will replace real data while testing artificial intelligence models, thus protecting user privacy. Their proposal was selected by BBVA AI Factory in the framework of the University of Navarra’s SofIA startup accelerator program.

The strategic agreement with Genesys®, a leader in cloud customer experience orchestration, is enabling BBVA to introduce the advantages of cloud computing in its centers in Spain and Latin America. Both entities are already working together to migrate remote customer care services in these regions, where they have been able to reduce waiting times, thus improving customer satisfaction levels through BBVA’s use of the Genesys Cloud CX™ solution.

It is increasingly common to receive attacks from fraudsters who impersonate banking institutions, the aim of which is to first obtain our passwords and then to gain access to our assets. However, the increase in these attacks has reinforced the efforts of bank security teams and police forces, both in terms of prevention and awareness, making it increasingly difficult for cybercriminals.

During the closing day of South Summit, BBVA revealed that it is preparing a complete range of financial services adapted to the different stages of growth of startups and scaleups. “We want to be the bank for high-growth companies and finance them,” said Roberto Albaladejo, Head of Banking for Growth Companies, who added that there is a “great opportunity” to help them and build “long-term relationships” with them.

At the South Summit, BBVA presents the BBVA Virtual Space, an immersive environment with which the bank wants to explore new ways of interacting with customers through the metaverse. This development, which allows experimenting how a banking service based on virtual reality could be, is also the protagonist of a 'hackathon' in which people are invited to offer new features or virtual experiences.

BBVA CEO Onur Genç stated that “BBVA has a competitive advantage” in the context of digital acceleration resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Digitization boosts our business,” he said during his presentation at the 17th Banking Industry Meeting organized by IESE in Madrid. In March 2022, BBVA added 90,000 new customers in Spain - the largest monthly figures in its history. Over half (52.25 percent) of these customers reached the bank through digital channels.

BBVA will invest a total of 15 million euros in Leadwind, a venture capital fund managed by K Fund. In this first phase, the fund will raise 140 million euros to support technology companies in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

The boom in cryptocurrencies, particularly in regions like Latin America, has lead numerous governments to create legislation to take advantage of the benefits and mitigate the risks. And they are not the only new alternative to cash - several central banks, including the European Central Bank, are looking into the possibility of issuing their own digital currencies. During a BBVA Open Talks event, the speakers debated how these changes will define the future of money.

Truora has raised $15 million in a series A funding round led by Propel, the fund that manages BBVA’s fintech investments, and Acel - one of the main investors in technology and the Internet. This new injection of capital will allow Truora to reinforce its expansion in Mexico with its solution to verify users through WhatsApp.

The world of medicine is experiencing an unprecedented transformation. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of digitisation and a number of different technologies are making an impression on this field, with solutions to improve both diagnosis and treatment. On the occasion of World Health Day, we're taking a close look at this wave of entrepreneurship to find out which trends and advances are leading the way in this sector.

The BBVA and Anthemis partnership led the first pre-seed funding for Wiserentr with an investment of one million euros. The Spanish startup raised a total of €1.6 million in the funding round, in which Shard Capital also participated. Its novel service reinvents the way to access high-end technology, as users pay a fixed fee throughout the time they use the electronic device. Once the set rental time has ended, it can be returned or purchased to use indefinitely.