Fintechs and major tech corporations have started rolling out new financial services that have the potential to severely disrupt the financial sector.  BBVA Research has just published “Digital Transformation and Competition in the Financial Sector,” a working paper that analyzes the regulatory challenges emerging in this new scenario to guarantee that customers can reap the benefits enabled by new technologies while ensuring fair competition conditions in an increasingly diverse ecosystem.

The world of video games is an economic and creative reality. Its possibilities are not limited to its recreational aspects; it is an industry that employees a multitude of people. According to the latest report by Newzoo, gaming generated more than €100 billion in 2018. And in an article that cites the Newzoo report, CNBC points out that this represents an increase of more than 13 percent compared to the previous year. The gaming industry encompasses video games, games for mobile devices, and eSports.

Each year the Las Vegas CES technology trade fair becomes a parade of outlandish devices as the the big industry trend-setters make their announcements for the coming year. Manufacturers like LG and Samsung compete to show off the latest models of their flexible displays or connected household appliances, while the likes of Amazon and Google continue the battle to place their virtual assistants in as may products as possible. What happened this year?

BBVA created the Global Head of Data position in March 2017 as part of its strategy to make decisions based on data. David Puente took on this new role, leading one of the most disruptive and essential projects in the bank’s transformation.

The trends described below will be the major disruptors that continue to shape the future of the new year in the age of digital transformation.

It’s time for holiday shopping and a bit more free time. The perfect time to recommend several books that help explain the digital revolution and its context.

BBVA and the European Investment Bank Group (EIB) have signed a synthetic securitization of €1 billion. The agreement is a very innovative financing operation, as it is the first synthetic securitization to be supported by blockchain technology in the European Union and the third synthetic corporate loan securitisation signed by the EIB Group and BBVA. Moreover, BBVA and EIB Group will provide €360 million to finance investments projects of SMEs and midcaps.

According to BBVA Next Technologies’ experts, these are four of the emerging platforms of the blockchain technology to watch out for next year.

BBVA and Porsche Holding Salzburg, the largest and most successful automotive distributor in Europe and a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, closed a €150 million term loan backing strategic acquisitions in the retail distribution network in Europe and Asia.

Carlos Torres Vila took part in the ‘14th Banking Industry Meeting’ organized by IESE and EY in Madrid. BBVA’s CEO spoke about how digital transformation reflects on the outside, but originates inside organizations. In the current environment, he believes that banks need to harness the potential of new technologies to create opportunities for their customers. “We think big, not only in the sense of being ambitious, but of being innovative, breaking molds and surprising the customer,” he said.

Identification using authentication like digital fingerprints and facial or iris recognition is making inroads in the world of airports where companies are looking for new technologies to enhance the user experience.

In a world flush with acronyms – hello, banking! – “API” might seem like the latest notable term. But the truth is, APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, have been on the scene for many years, and was made popular in the year 2000 when SalesForce officially launched its web-based sales force automation.

BBVA customers can now use an app that predicts their future income and expenses (Bconomy). Now, BBVA has developed —together with Google Cloud— an artificial intelligence model that would allow them to improve the accuracy of predictions. This model is explained in a white paper that also offers users recommendations on ways to protect the privacy of their data.

BBVA Compass Head of New Business Development Pepe Olalla says in 2019 early stage technologies will mature – for example more use cases for blockchain – but it’s AI-related technology that will take center stage.

A group of prominent innovation leaders and experts gathered recently in Paris to attend the Innovation Leaders Summit, organized by the MIT Technology Review. BBVA’s was the only major bank to take part as speaker at the event. Here, it debated on current topics, such as the role of blockchain in the emerging tokenized economy and the security challenges posed by quantum computing.

This new computing paradigm will reduce latency and streamline data traffic coming from millions of devices on the Internet of Things.

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.

Friday November 30 is International Computer Security Day (ICSD), a day that aims to raise awareness and remind society about the importance of protecting both company and personal computer resources in order to prevent the misuse of financial and personal data, and even identity theft.

BBVA has been recognized by the Financial Times (FT), Google and a panel of leading European policy makers as one of the 100 digital pioneers in Europe. BBVA is the only major bank included in a special report from the Financial Times, ‘Europe’s Road to Growth,’ because of its innovative use of new technologies, as well as the cultural shift that the company has undertaken.

BBVA is one of the first five banks invited to join a blockchain forum organized by the European Commission (EC) in Brussels to, subsequently, join the launch of the IATBA, an European platform to promote the use of blockchain. The purpose of this publicly-sponsored initiative is to garner support from private blockchain and DLT experts to contribute to outline the EU’s strategy regarding these technologies.

Upturn, a new venture incubated by BBVA and aimed at changing the financial health of up to 22 million U.S. residents a year, has today been launched in the U.S.

The digital revolution has social consequences that must be understood and managed. Nobel Laureate in Economics Joseph Stiglitz says the key is to ensure that inequality does not increase.

BBVA collaborated with a research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop a model that can reduce the level of false positives in fraudulent card transactions up to 54 percent, thanks to algorithms based on machine learning.

At the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, BBVA Group Executive Chairman Francisco González presented ‘The Age of Perplexity’ – the tenth installment of OpenMind’s book series, which explores the profound transformation brought about by the digital revolution. In his opinion, the combination of globalization and rapidly developing technology has led to an era of political and social change. This period is both the cause and effect of a state of deep uncertainty, which focuses primarily on the future of the economy and employment.

The arrival of new blockchain platforms, advances in cloud computing and the consolidation of new machine-human interactions, are among the hottest trends according BBVA Next Technologies ‘Tech Radar 2018‘, a report that shines the spotlight on some the most relevant tools and practices in 2018, as well as those that will mark the next years in fields such as big data and artificial intelligence.

Driverless cars capable of behaving like bird flocks, software capable of playing sheets of music composed during the Renaissance, algorithms capable of analyzing emotions expressed by social media users and tools for boosting people’s learning abilities… These are just some areas on which the winners of this year’s edition of the Spanish Computer Science Society (SCIE) – BBVA Foundation Research Awards have focused their work.

One of the core themes BBVA has been exploring at the Money20/20 U.S. event this year has been the power of networks.

Some 75 percent of the world’s population  —77 percent in the case of Spain— feels overwhelmed by the constant buzz of information that marks digital life.

Devices with combined cloud technology and neural networks integrated into their hardware – to reduce potential stability, privacy, and latency issues – are now a reality.

For the sixth year in a row, the European Commission and the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) are calling October “European Cybersecurity Month” in order to promote cybersecurity across the EU. The goal is to raise awareness of cybersecurity, identify and change unsafe behavior and provide users resources to learn how to protect themselves online.

In an online world, scammers are using new tricks and forms of deception to get what they want from their victims. Although the tools may have changed, today’s scams are not much different from the old-school “pigeon drop” scam in which a victim is persuaded to give the scammer money with the promise of receiving a much larger sum. In this new scenario, cybersecurity training is essential to protect the private data of both individuals and professionals.

For the sixth year in a row, the European Commission and the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) are calling October “European Cybersecurity Month” in order to promote cybersecurity across the EU. The goal is to raise awareness of cybersecurity, identify and change unsafe behavior and provide users resources to learn how to protect themselves online.

In an online world, scammers are using new tricks and forms of deception to get what they want from their victims. Although the tools may have changed, today’s scams are not much different from the old-school “pigeon drop” scam in which a victim is persuaded to give the scammer money with the promise of receiving a much larger sum. In this new scenario, cybersecurity training is essential to protect the private data of both individuals and professionals.

This week, a quick wrap-up of the top fintech stories:

For the sixth year in a row, the European Commission and the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) are calling October “European Cybersecurity Month” in order to promote cybersecurity across the EU. The goal is to raise awareness of cybersecurity, identify and change unsafe behavior and provide users resources to learn how to protect themselves online.

With investments on artificial intelligence expected to reach €10 billion by 2020, it is evident that the financial sector is very optimistic about these technologies. However, the level of uncertainty surrounding AI remains almost too high to justify this degree of enthusiasm. In a recently published paper, the World Economic Forum warns about how overhyped misconceptions of what AI really is and what it can deliver may undermine the potential benefits derived from the use of artificial intelligence in finance. In contrast with this vision, other experts concur that AI contributes more to prevent and mitigate risks than to generate them.

With the slogan “Stop. Think. Connect. Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility”, more than 400 activities will take place during ‘European Cybersecurity Month’ across Europe. Activities like conferences, workshops, training sessions, presentations, webinars, Internet campaigns and much more are all designed to protect users from Internet scammers.

In an online world, scammers are using new tricks and forms of deception to get what they want from their victims. Although the tools may have changed, today’s scams are not much different from the old-school “pigeon drop” scam in which a victim is persuaded to give the scammer money with the promise of receiving a much larger sum. In this new scenario, cybersecurity training is essential to protect the private data of both individuals and professionals.

The Valencian company Emotion Research Lab has developed a system that studies human behavior through facial analysis.

The CEO and future chairman of BBVA, Carlos Torres Vila, stressed this morning that “privacy should never be the price to pay for a service.” At the IX Financial Meeting organized by KPMG and Spain’s daily business journal Expansión he explained that new European regulations for the protection and use of data (GDPR and PSD2) are a step in the right direction, although he called for a level playing field between banks and other sectors.

Mobility, health, commerce…everything is connected in cities. Thanks to digitalization and big data, now it is possible to combine all of these aspects, opening the door for better urban planning.

The best way to close a distance is to eliminate it. This is what is required if distance is what prevents one in every four financially excluded people from opening a bank account. The World Bank indicates that technology may play a key role in making financial inclusion a viable reality for everyone, which is why digital transformation is part of BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s DNA. The Foundation aims to reach more people, regardless of how far away they live, and to provide assistance as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Some companies are now working to incorporate blockchain technology into smartphones. A cell phone that incorporates these characteristics could become the most secure on the market. This would be possible thanks to blockchain’s intrinsic security provisions.

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.