Over the past few months, the whole world is making an extra effort amidst the sanitary and economic crisis prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Banking is an essential service and as such it has a key role in economic activity. Peru was no exception, and BBVA continued to serve its customers and clients with all their financial needs.

BBVA USA announced earlier this week that it would close offices across its footprint in commemoration of Juneteenth, creating an opportunity to cultivate a deeper understanding of our individual and collective roles in standing against systemic racism and social injustice.

Francisco Herrera, Computer Science Professor at the University of Granada, is leading research that aims to diagnose COVID-19 in less than a second using chest x-rays. The project, which is in advanced stages, uses artificial intelligence as a tool to interpret biomedical images more effectively than the human brain. This technique would greatly help health clinics that do not have sophisticated diagnostic imaging systems.

It’s a constant refrain among leaders at BBVA USA that theirs is an organization of people helping people, and that means addressing both sides of the people equation - customers and employees. Not surprising, then, that the bank’s five-year strategic plan contains pillars that focus on both.

To know that they help improve people’s lives is what encourages Roberta, Fernanda, Omar, Yuriem and Teresa to face the day. As part of more than 4,000 microfinance officers of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) in five Latin American countries, they reach places where others don’t go, to make financial services more accessible to low-income entrepreneurs who need only an opportunity to develop their livelihoods.

BBVA’s emblematic headquarters building in Madrid will be lit with a black ribbon for the 10 day mourning period decreed by the Spanish government, which began yesterday. The bank, which has devoted its efforts to help combat the health emergency, is therefore joining the tribute to the victims of the disease.