Jim Newell, unlike most of the US population, has had what some may call his fifteen minutes of fame. It came as a drummer in a renowned KISS tribute band Larger Than Life – makeup and costumes and all.

Global Finance has crowned BBVA as the world’s best bank for corporate clients in this year’s edition of its flagship Best Global Banks awards. Thus, the prestigious publication recognizes the excellence of the product and service portfolio that the bank offers to small, medium and large business through its different business units.

BBVA USA and Birmingham Legion FC have announced Conserv as the winner of the 2019 Launchpad contest, awarding the tech startup $2,500, among other prizes.

Garanti BBVA Partners, an initiative launched by Garanti BBVA to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem, has announced its new activities and participants. The initiative champions the transformation of innovative ideas into sustainable enterprises and provides concrete support to this end.

They’re everywhere. Whether it be gold arches, burger royalty, donuts that dunk or fried chicken from Kentucky, fast food restaurant franchises are everywhere in the United States.

BBVA USA is taking its small business-focused initiative to the Rocky Mountains, announcing today the beginning of its Entrepreneurial Opportunity Contest in the Denver area.

• Contest: The initiative with The Business Journals was first held in four markets in the first part of the year.
• Criteria: Businesses with innovative services, products, or business model submit their entry for a chance to be selected as finalists and pitch to a panel of judges.
• Prize: The winning business will be awarded $10,000 and an opportunity to compete for $50,000 at the final event in Phoenix against previous winners in other markets.

BBVA USA launched its real time ARP and PositivePay products last year in a milestone that was both ground-breaking and game-changing.

BBVA has selected 19 social entrepreneurs from across the U.S. to participate in its BBVA Momentum accelerator program, designed to help participants enhance their operations to impact the lives of more people.

Almost a year ago, BBVA USA launched the ground-breaking BBVA Compass RealTime ARP™ and BBVA Compass RealTime Positive Pay™ products – digital solutions that would change the landscape of U.S. treasury management.

BBVA Compass and the Houston Rockets have announced Hamper as the winner of the 2019 Launchpad contest, awarding the tech startup $10,000, among other prizes.

Last week, BBVA Compass announced its annual Small Business Month, which includes special offers for small business clients, seminars and contests designed to help entrepreneurs elevate their operations.

BBVA Compass RealTime ARP™ has been named the 2019 Innovator in Cash Management by Global Finance Magazine, as part of the publication’s annual The Innovators 2019 awards.

BBVA Compass is kicking off its annual Small Business Month, its own expanded version of National Small Business Week.

Every May, the Small Business Administration, and other organizations invested in entrepreneurship, celebrate National Small Business Week, recognizing the contributions of small business owners across the country.

Ricardo Forcano, BBVA’s Global Head of Engineering and Organization, participated in the Association for the Advancement of Management’s (APD in Spanish) session on Agile Organizations, where he presented how BBVA is transforming its organization and work methods. “It’s a constant learning process,” Forcano said, referring to BBVA’s efforts to incorporate  the agile methodology across all of its central areas. As a result, the bank is able to provide its customers new solutions more effectively.

Leaning against the trunk of an apple tree in 1666, Isaac Newton asked himself, “Why do apples fall?” Perhaps some of the neighboring farmers would have thought: “Well, that’s a waste of time.” And maybe they would have added, “What’s the use of thinking about such obvious occurrences? Apples fall because they fall.” Behind this possible recrimination there might have been some noteworthy ideas about the importance of productivity and the food chain: what is important about apples is how to harvest them and capitalize on them.

Peio Belausteguigoitia (Bilbao, 1973) is BBVA Spain’s Head of Business Development. He was previously responsible for Spain’s northern territory, and prior to that ran the eastern territory and was regional director for the northeast.

The unit that he runs is key to the bank’s transformation in Spain. In the year and a half that he has held this position, BBVA has ramped up the number of digital deliveries for private customers – providing them tools to help make better financial decisions – and boosted sales and the number of online customers.

And now, BBVA has created the digital transformation factory for businesses. With a multidisciplinary team of 250 professionals, it facilitates the delivery of digital solutions to customers in more flexible timeframes. The bank recently launched Avalbox, which radically digitizes the guarantor request process; and One View, which helps businesses make more efficient decisions and optimize their cashflow.

Thanksgiving.

Black Friday.

Digital Monday.

These are all words associated with this time of the year. That, and, “It’s too early for holiday music!”

Buenos Aires is currently welcoming the annual summit of the B20, or Business 20, as part of the Argentinian presidency of the G20 in 2018. Over 1,500 representatives of the business community have gathered in the Argentine capital to put forward their recommendations to the world’s main leaders.

According to Gartner, 38% of companies around the world are expected to use ‘conversational bots’ for customer service and managing corporate applications by employees.

The startup glossary has acquired a new term to set those “unicorns” that have exceeded a valuation of $10 billion apart from the rest.

BBVA Compass has long been an advocate for small business, winning multiple awards and teaming with organizations that cultivate a thriving entrepreneurial atmosphere. The bank’s BBVA Momentum program even focuses on entrepreneurs who strive to elevate their communities through social projects.

There is no one-size-fits all when categorizing small businesses, according to BBVA Compass Business Banking Segment Executive Director Elizabeth Dobers. Some banks have a different outlook when making that determination – including consideration of annual sales, number of employees and annual receipts.

More than just an acronym, the Small Business Administration has been around since 1953, serving small businesses around the country in more ways than one. BBVA Compass has consistently used the phrase, “cornerstones of thriving communities” when describing small businesses, and the SBA is a big help in molding those cornerstones.

Business owners have a responsibility to ensure quality services to their clients in order for their operations to thrive. For a majority of business owners, their business is what makes up most of their income and subsequently their net worth.

Aquademy, a swimming school in Laredo, Texas, specializes in teaching people of all ages to swim – whether they’re babies, toddlers, children, teens or adults – where they learn the basics with the option of also learning four styles of swimming. Additionally, Aquademy holds aqua aerobics classes for adults.

Some have been lucky enough to receive a share of their thriving family businesses; others have amassed fortunes on their own merits before they turned 30, fortunes worth more than $1.3 billion.

Small businesses and startups face obstacles when building operations. For owners, the challenges can be great and the return on investment can be minimal in the beginning.

The European Commission’s annual report on innovative companies sees startups posting a 36 percent growth in financing in 2017, with fintechs leading the way.

The digital revolution has transformed the business of many industries and the way in which they offer services to their customers. Carlos Casas and Ophélie Richard, or BBVA’s Talent & Culture area, addressed during Talent Day 2018 how these changes also require companies to radically transform the way in which they work and manage in-house talent.

It’s a challenging enough road for small businesses to navigate in order to cultivate success in a competitive atmosphere. Tangling that web even further is the strong momentum of the digital wave.

Iberdrola, Repsol and BlackRock representatives debated today about the need to integrate climate change into their strategies, speaking at the ‘BBVA Sustainable Finance Forum’ event, held today at BBVA’s headquarters in Madrid. The main takeaways were two: An actual commitment to sustainability is an opportunity, not a threat; and, more and more, investors demand companies to include sustainable criteria in their strategies.

Every year, National Small Business Week brings out initiatives and recognition for small businesses, showcasing the entrepreneurial spirit from coast-to-coast.

Openpay, which is part of the BBVA Group, has forged a new partnership with Alipay, the leading digital payment platform in China. The deal means Chinese tourists and visitors to Mexico can now pay for things using the Alipay platform, which is hugely popular in their home country.

BBVA Open Talent, the world’s biggest fintech competition, will this year mark its tenth anniversary by working with more start-ups than ever before.

Find out more and register for Open Talent 2018 here.

Fair-trade coffee, quality guarantee, ecological tomatoes… consumers read the labels on the things they eat. But is there any way of checking that what they say is correct? In order to do so, you would need a register of the processes to which the product has been submitted, something blockchain can do.

The “proptech” companies and the most innovative financial institutions are already offering services that improve the customer experience in the real estate sector.

Four members of BBVA’s design team were invited to participate in Interaction18, the biggest technology and design event in France, to explain how design contributes to organizational change.

When San Francisco comes to mind, so do connotations of entrepreneurship and innovative thinking. So when BBVA decided to set up a course on entrepreneurship for some of the bank’s best Global Wealth clients, Northern California was its top choice.

Investor angels, or business angels, are people who invest their money in the initial phase of startups, in exchange for a participation in capital. They also usually carry out the role of a mentor and offer their consent and experience to entrepreneurs.

Your ability to build strong relationships with colleagues is critical to the success of your career. It opens doors to key projects, personal development, mentoring opportunities and promotion.

E-everything: Big tech companies now offer BaaS (Blockchain as a Service)—a way to access blockchain technology without incurring huge costs.

Fintech firms have taken advantage of the market opportunity offered by SMEs. Their formula consists of expanding the offering of financial products and services for this productive segment.

Sustainable Development is essential to achieving more peaceful and just societies and the United Nations counts on the private sector to help in this effort. The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) has contributed its experience in the finance sector to the report entitled “Business and SDG 16: contributing to peaceful, just and inclusive societies,” drawn up by the Sustainable Development Goals Fund and the University of Pennsylvania.

The transformation of the economy opens the door to collaboration between big corporations and startups: they need to understand each other and collaborate. It’s a beneficial relationship for all, but one which is not always easy.

Argentina’s small and medium sized enterprises, despite being pummeled by taxes and struggling to access credit, managed to survive the collapse of consumption. Now, they are gearing up to capitalize on the improving economic outlook, thanks to the lending and tax measures that the government will roll out in short to encourage them to invest. Four our of every 10 companies say they intend to do so.

BBVA’s Group Executive Chairman was given the Vocento Corporate Leadership Award for his career achievements. Vocento recognized Francisco González as  a “corporate leader with numerous accomplishments who saw the emergence of digitization in our lives as an opportunity, and decided to turn the bank into a digital company.”

In the era of the digital economy, it’s crucial that entrepreneurs acquire the financial knowledge and skills needed to develop innovative projects with long term sustainability. That´s why the focus on education, and in particular financial education, should be widened to include entrepreneurship, especially among young people.

From a small town in Burgos province, the mobile robotics engineering firm ASTI shows that digitization provides an opportunity to restore the fabric of industry.