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

Amazon & Google jointly hold over two thirds of the global smart speaker market, but problems ‘made in China’ are on the horizon.

The tools known as cryptowallets allow the storage and exchange of cryptocurrencies, and are becoming increasingly relevant in the context of the cryptoeconomy and blockchain boom. It is important to recognize their characteristics and differences, as not all offer the same levels of security.

Francisco González, the executive chairman of the BBVA Group, is a member of the International Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is a frequent visitor to the country. This weekend, he took part in the Singapore Summit, an event aimed at “connecting Asia with the rest of the world.” While there, Francisco González granted an interview to the Spanish daily ABC, in which he speaks about the “extraordinary moment” the bank is going through, having chosen to embark on a digital endeavor, the results of which have been striking. These results include an increase in digital sales, which accounted for 42 percent of total sales in July. “The first fruits of digitization have been really superb,” he says.

If our digital identities are only guided by the recommendations fed by an artificial intelligence, we risk creating a virtual world with polarized opinions.

The concept of a ‘dictionary attack’, although it sounds like a fight in a library, refers to a method of hacking to break password-protected security systems.

How many times have you gone to a search engine to find an answer for something, but didn’t know exactly how to frame your inquiry to get the desired result?

BBVA Compass is far from experiencing an AI takeover of the sort Wikipedia describes, but teams from around the bank, including Mortgage, Finance and Compliance, have discovered the power and efficiency of automation.

Like most IT professionals, the engineering team at BBVA Compass loves the challenge and teamwork of a good hackathon.  These condensed collaborative coding events were the inspiration for the inaugural BBVA Compass Ninja Hackathon, which included both bank employees and students from the University of Alabama Birmingham.

Advances in technology contribute to economic progress and have a direct, long-term impact on society’s well-being. Clearly, digital transformation creates opportunities that improve both our lives and our businesses. BBVA shares this view: the bank has made a commitment to new technologies such as blockchain, which allow it to offer innovative financing approaches to its corporate clients.

Like other customer-centric companies, BBVA Compass uses large amounts of data — “big data” — to drive its customer understanding and its customer experiences.  And while the bank’s shift to its new big data platform will make data collection easier, the process still requires data analysts who can make sense of all that information.

Blockchain is one of the most disruptive new technologies in the world of finance. But currently its use in the sector is focused mainly on the underlying technology – Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)- to create applications or redesign processes rather than in creating cryptoassets. The reason? Blockchain applications have the potential to improve the efficiency, transparency and traceability of processes while cryptoassets are volatile.

What is BBVA’s strategy for transforming the bank into a truly digital company?

Amid increasing numbers of fintechs joining the financial industry and burgeoning investment in them – Accenture reports $27.4 billion was spent financing fintechs in 2017, an 18 percent increase year-over-year – there has been much hand wringing and discussion about the future of incumbent banks. For BBVA Compass Head of Business Development Pepe Olalla, the future isn’t so murky.

“When people say the next industry to be disrupted will be banking, and that it will suffer what media or the music industries have suffered, I tend to disagree,” he says.

We take a look at the mobile apps with the largest number of downloads and installations in iOS and Android devices since the launch of their respective virtual stores.

BBVA often talks about how it is transitioning from a bank into a truly digital company. While it is an easy thing to say, the ways in which you demonstrate this are incredibly complex. Take data, for example.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) recently released research aimed at demonstrating the importance of digital transformation in corporate banking. In the research, BCG underscored the notion that for lasting and meaningful digital transformation, banks need to develop a clear vision for the future of banking, formulate a comprehensive strategy of how they will evolve alongside it, and plan their initiatives accordingly.

Spain has just become one of the few countries in the European Union with a concrete proposal for launching a regulatory sandbox. The goal? To create a space for experimentation, temporarily unencumbered by regulatory measures, to promote innovation in the financial sector. In doing so, Spain thus has stolen a march on other countries in this area, with a proposed law that appeals to both the traditional financial industry and new fintech startups. Álvaro Martín, Chief Economist for Digital Regulation and Trends at BBVA Research helps us understand how it will function and if it benefits the consumer.

With the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications across industries, there has been understandable confusion around associated terms, including Robotic Process Automation, Intelligent Automation and even AI itself.

What does rooting or jailbreaking a mobile device mean? Both verbs refer to the same action of removing the limitations that mobile device manufacturers impose to limit user access to the devices’ resources, thus becoming some sort of superuser. Root however is used when the action is performed on android devices, and jailbreak on iOS devices.

A new cryptocurrency available without the internet represents one of the first examples of how to implement blockchain technology in the absence of a decent digital infrastructure.

Computer programs that automate processes are already common in banks. They cut costs, improve efficiency, but what is more important is that when combined with artificial intelligence, they open the door to greater advances.

From industry conferences to the headlines of the trades and in boardrooms around the world, the term “Artificial Intelligence” – or AI – is all the rage in financial services.

Answering this question is not easy. Academics and financial industry representatives met to discuss whether it would be appropriate for central banks to issue digital currencies. In the forum, BBVA executive board member, José Manuel González-Páramo, indicated that he believes it is probable that central banks will issue cryptocurrencies in the years ahead.  Future advances in blockchain technology will open the way to its use by financial authorities.

New VR headsets like Oculus Go and HTV Pro are becoming more accesible and dropping barries to entry for a wider range of audience.

A number of websites offer downloads of thousands of books that can be read on any device.

Summer is synonymous with more time for reading. Here we provide 10 nonfiction titles that that will give you a broader view of a world in change.

Banks have clearly opted for financial technology, or fintech, to take on their new rivals, be they small startups or internet giants. However, the use of these technologies is more limited than it might appear. According to a study by the European Banking Authority (EBA), currently the majority of banks are focused on two lines of actions: biometrics for the identification and authentication of customers and the launch of mobile payment systems using NFC technology.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila got a first-hand glimpse into the level of progress that the BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s digital strategy is enabling. Bancamía, the Foundation’s lending arm in the country, is managing to reach more and more customers who, until recently, had struggled to access financing as a result of the digital divide. BBVA’s CEO learned about two of the entrepreneurs backed by the institution and how microcredits have afforded them new opportunities to pursue a brighter future.

The world of business is constantly coining new terms to name and categorize emerging concepts, ideas, technologies and activities that existing words struggle to convey. In this article we’ve assembled a list of relevant neologisms that will help you keep up with what’s happening in the field of digital innovation.

Europe included cybersecurity as one of its priorities in the European Council meeting in June. Some 69 percent of European companies lack basic knowledge about their exposure to cyberattacks despite 80 percent of them having suffered some type of cyber-incident in the past year. With this in mind, the European Parliamentary Financial Service Forum (EPFSF) organized in the European Parliament a session for cybersecurity experts to suggest ideas to face the risks in the internet.

Technology changes our lives day by day, offering us capabilities that were unimaginable just yesterday, but also complex challenges and potentially frightening conflicts. In other words: the perfect raw material for the best TV comedy and drama, which has found fertile ground in anti-establishment hackers, genius programmers, start-ups in distress, indolent IT guys or dystopian visions that seem a little too much like the world we live in.

Gesturing to the mint colored typewriter on the table, BBVA US Director of Risk Technology and Productivity Amory Booher said, “Technology has a lifecycle with a start and end date. For instance, the computer changed how we interacted with typewriters. Similarly, artificial intelligence and cognitive capabilities are changing how we interact with computers. We don’t know if these technological advancements will be as significant as going from the typewriter to the computer, but it’s incumbent on us to understand how these technologies are being applied so we can use them to make our lives better.”

The word “gig” comes from musical jargon and refers to a performance by a musical group. When applied to the working world, the concept refers to sporadic jobs of limited duration. The person hired to do the job is responsible for fulfilling a specific role within a project.

Every Friday, BBVA Compass, a leader in the U.S. digital banking revolution, publishes its weekly Fintech Friday article, giving you headlines you might have missed in the world of fintech across the U.S.

Over three days experts in finance, fintech and technology debated in Salzburg (Austria) the import of the challenge posed by technology for the economy and the financial sector. The disruption brought on by the massive adoption of new technologies has quickened the pace of change facing institutions. They also face the task of attracting customers in an environment in which there is much more supply.

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.

Where do most internet users go online from? What devices do they use? How often do they upgrade their smartphones? This a snapshot of the current internet and smartphone use habits across the planet.

With the creation of this engineering company, home to 1,200 technology experts, BBVA seeks to expedite its technological transformation.

We are witnessing the birth of a new generation of consumers. The latest generations – “millennials” and “centennials” – and those who are no longer so young but have quickly migrated to the new technologies, are setting the course for the economy in general and for banking in particular. Their new patterns of behavior and consumption create needs that change as quickly as the digital environment. It is essential that banks understand these needs so that they can help their customers make better financial decisions.

Long gone are the days when banks would send canceled checks from the previous month’s transactions so  customers could balance their checkbooks and manage their accounts. Today, the proliferation of digital money movement means transferring of money in and out of bank accounts has become real-time and a daily process. The BBVA Compass Mobile Banking App makes daily account management an easier task with customizable real-time alert notifications.

Forrester analyst Martha Bennett shared with BBVA her view on the current uses of and potential of blockchain. According to this expert, this technology is comparable to the mobile phone and the internet in the 1990s when already “usable” but far off reaching full potential.

Novels, movies, articles … much has been written about the future. From Jules Verne’s famed Journey to the Center of the Earth to flying cars that promise to revolutionize commuting. With the passage of time, ideas that seemed outlandish in the past have become a reality, causing us to think that ideas that seem impossible just might materialize.

BBVA has unveiled Valora View, the first app in the European Banking sector using augmented reality to help prospective buyers or renters find a home. With this new free service, available for both customers and non-customers of the bank, BBVA launches a tool that, harnessing the power of big data, is capable of providing users with recommended purchase or rent prices for a specific property. And not only that: The application can also provide advice on whether it makes more sense to buy or rent, and even run mortgage simulations.

BBVA participated in the Red Hat Summit, the annual event held by the open-source software company in San Francisco, where the Group was awarded for being a model of digital transformation using cloud technologies. During one of the event sessions, the company’s CEO, Jim Whitehurst, talked with José María Ruesta, BBVA’s Global Head of Infrastructure, Service and Open Systems.

BBVA has successfully completed the first global corporate loan transaction using blockchain technology from the negotiation of the deal to its signing, in line with their close collaboration to leverage cutting-edge technologies to streamline business processes.

DLT and blockchain share a conceptual origin: they are digitalized and decentralized log books of record. Often the terms are confused, but they are differentiated by an unshared set of specific features.

Meetings, reports, deadlines … a symphony of tasks that can sometimes turn the workday into a slog. On top of all this, add the intention to live a healthy lifestyle and it might seem like an impossible task. Luckily, there’s always a smartphone at hand and an app to help you face the day.

Carlos Kuchkovsky, CTO of New Digital Businesses at BBVA, has been elected for the second year running as a member of the Governing Board of Hyperledger, one of the major partnerships formed to promote the use of blockchain in different business and technology sectors.

Recently Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that he was going to subject his company to the standards of the new European data protection regulation that will be in force from May 25th, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) But, what impact will this legislation have on a technology company like Facebook? And on others?

José Manuel González-Páramo, BBVA’s head of Global Economics, Regulation and Public Affairs, presented the bank’s blockchain strategy at the IIF’s meeting in Washington before regulatory officials of the finance sector. A strategy based on a pillar called the three E’s: Execution, Ecosystem, and Experience.

BBVA to invest $50 million into Sinovation Fund IV, a Chinese venture capital fund run by Sinovation Ventures and led by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee.

The General Data Protection Regulation is a new EU-wide law that will strengthen the data and privacy rights of EU citizens once it becomes effective on May 25, 2018.  As a novelty, the GDPR introduces the right to portability of personal data, which will allow a customer to share the personal data which he/she has provided to a company with other companies with which he/she engages.

Malware, or malicious software, covers different programs which, when run in devices, cause different types of damage and complications such as interrupting their operations, disrupting how they work, stealing information and displaying unwanted advertising.

The agreement, signed by 22 countries, will serve as a vehicle for cooperation among member states on the exchange of experiences and know-how required in the creation of blockchain applications within Europe.

Digital transformations are most effective when customers are not aware their bank has undergone one, says BBVA Compass Head of Retail Banking Çağrı Süzer.

BBVA has held its inaugural Open Innovation Open Talks event in San Francisco to a packed audience of investors, startups and key commentators – both from within the financial services world and beyond.

End up hating the sound of the alarm. Have coffee for breakfast and with any luck a couple of biscuits. Drive right into the middle of a traffic jam and can’t find anywhere to park. All these problems can be avoided by creating for yourself the desired routine with a smartphone in hand and the best morning apps.

The fifth generation of mobile phone networks is essential for the internet of things and self-driving cars to become a reality but before that operators need to assure themselves that the rollout of the network will be profitable.