BBVA is committed to clean energy and will support the energy industry in its transition. The bank has therefore announced it will reduce emissions from its oil and gas portfolio by 30% by 2030. This commitment is in addition to the bank's 2021 targets  in four other carbon-intensive sectors and the decision to stop financing coal companies, in line with the zero net emissions banking alliance (NZBA).

BBVA is part of a European high level expert group charged with providing recommendations to the European Commission to promote sustainable financing in emerging countries and bridge the gap that currently exists in financing the SDGs. BBVA is the only private bank in this group, which will present its recommendations in mid-2023.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila opened the Edufin Summit 2022 this Thursday, with a focus on inclusive and sustainable growth via training in digital skills. At this forum, he announced that BBVA will train two million people in financial education between 2021 and 2025, doubling the initial target.

BBVA shareholders will receive next October 11, 2022, a cash interim dividend of €0.12 (gross) per share. This amount is 50 percent higher than that of last year, of €0.08 per share paid in October 2021. The Group’s solid results in the first half of the year are supporting this decision.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila said “Onur Genç is exceptional as a person, exceptional as a professional and as a team leader, and the bank’s excellent results are proof of that” with “an outstanding performance in all areas”. “This is the unanimous view of the BBVA Board. In short, we could not have a better CEO than Onur.” At an event in Madrid organized by the Spanish business association APD and Kearney, Torres Vila said some media reports speculating over a possible change of CEO were “a complete fabrication.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has named the Roca brothers ‘Food Heroes’ for their work promoting sustainable gastronomy. The Spanish chefs, together with BBVA, have collaborated in several sustainability projects encouraging responsible eating habits. Through the “Sembrando el futuro” (“Seeds for the future”) project, they seek to recover extinct ingredients and preserve biodiversity.

The British publication has once again recognized BBVA as the bank with the best real estate solutions in the region. Furthermore, Euromoney named the Peru and Argentina franchises as finalists in their respective countries, thanks to their home loans.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila will open the next EduFin Summit, the international financial education event hosted by BBVA's Center for Financial Education and Capability, which will take place on September 29 and 30. Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union, will participate in the opening ceremony. The conference will be held for the first time in two countries: Spain and Mexico.

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.

In a presentation sent to the CNMV on the occasion of an event with investors this Wednesday, BBVA highlights the bank's track record in creating value for shareholders and its competitive edge, focused on profitable growth. This enables BBVA to present a positive outlook with recent improvements in its forecasts for loan growth and net interest income in markets like Spain and Mexico. The document that BBVA CEO Onur Genç will present at the conference organized by Bank of America emphasizes that “BBVA is an engine of profitable growth.”

BBVA New Gen, the investment product offered by the Group’s Swiss franchise, has completed its first year of existence. In a move to streamline the onboarding process, the bank now lets prospective customers sign up online just by uploading a ‘selfie’, after which their identity is verified in a matter of seconds. BBVA Switzerland is leveraging this technology, which can verify identity documents and passports from more than 190 countries, to boost its international expansion.

BBVA placed a €1.25 billion senior preferred bond on the market today with a five year maturity. The issue price closed at an interest rate of mid-swap plus 115 basis points, significantly lower than the initial price (mid-swap plus 140/145 basis points). This represents a new issue premium of just 10 basis points over its fair value, considerably lower than the premiums obtained for recent operations in the debt market. The coupon was set at 3.375 percent.

Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, President of the Government of Spain, and Carlos Torres Vila, BBVA Chair, will open the BBVA Sustainability Forum 2022, on September 15 (4:30pm CEST) at Ciudad BBVA, Madrid. Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, the Third Vice-President of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, will also take part in the meeting.

Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc., a global leader in adaptive HR solutions, announced that BBVA is leveraging Cornerstone’s tools to develop and enhance its employee growth strategies and manage various talent areas, including recruitment, assessment, learning and mobility.

BBVA has placed a 1.75 billion dollars senior non-preferred debt issuance registered with the United States SEC. The issue was divided in two tranches, one maturing in four years, of which 1 billion dollars was placed, and the other maturing in six years, with a placement of 750 million dollars. Both tranches have an early redemption option one year earlier.

BBVA's Turkish franchise is one of the main drivers of renewable energy projects in the country.

Almost 1,000 engineers have joined BBVA in the first half of 2022. A figure that the financial institution expects to double by the end of this year. These are technology profiles that are embedded throughout the different countries where the bank has a presence, 400 of them in Spain.

As part of its initiatives to combat the climate crisis and work towards a sustainable world, Garanti BBVA has presented the first activity report of its ‘Blue Breath Project’ in alliance with the Deniz Temiz Association/TURMEPA. The 9-month undertaking has promoted awareness training on waste surface cleaning in the Marmara Sea as well as sea cleaning in the provinces of the region to prevent marine pollution.

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.

Garanti BBVA makes it a top priority to make life easier for customers, including people with disabilities. That is why the bank now provides hearing-impaired customers with fast, user-friendly access to a live support assistant over its mobile app.

BBVA has completed the final segment of its share buyback program today as it has reached the maximum target of shares. The framework buyback program, which started in November 2021, is now complete, having achieved its target of buying back 9.6% of its capital. This is one of the largest European bank share buybacks ever conducted.

Around four million people have potentially benefited from the social bond that BBVA issued in 2021, in a placement that amounted to 1 billion euros. Almost 50% of the amount was allocated to the access to essential services category (health, education and financial services), followed by socioeconomic advancement and empowerment (37%), affordable basic infrastructure (12%) and affordable housing (0.6%). Such is the conclusion of the 2021 Green and Social Bonds Report just published by the bank. The document details the environmental and social impact generated by the projects and loans that have been financed with the proceeds of the green and social bonds issued by BBVA, S.A. since 2018, amounting to a total of €5 billion, of which €3 billion were green bonds and €2 billion were social bonds.

Anxiety, stress or fatigue are some of the problems that startup creators often face. Summer can be a good time to focus on how important it is to protect your emotional wellbeing and strike a balance before getting back to the routine. Learning to manage failure, knowing how to delegate and enjoying time to disconnect are some of the things that experts recommend for taking care of mental health.

BBVA's second quarter 2022 results were warmly received by the market. After the figures were released, the bank's shares rose 6% in trading on Friday, July 29. Earnings outperformed analysts' consensus estimate by 77%.

BBVA financed almost €14.5 billion between April and June 2022, up 50% from the same period from the previous year. This is the quarter that has mobilized the largest amount. Moreover, since 2018, it has financed a total of almost €112 billion and thereby has exceeded half of its 2025 goal set at €200 billion.

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.

Garanti BBVA released its financial statements dated June 30, 2022. Based on the consolidated financials, the Bank posted net income for the first 6 months of the year of TL 21.18 billion. Assets came to TL 1,096 billion, while the Bank’s contribution to the Turkish economy through cash and non-cash loans was TL 799.5 billion.

The deal between Garanti BBVA and Masfen Enerji enhances opportunities for investors to finance new solar power plants and support Türkiye’s renewable energy output.

BBVA has recently appointed Pierre Goffin the bank's new Country Manager for France. Pierre has more than 25 years' experience in corporate and investment banking and will oversee business in this market. His main objective will be to strengthen relations with large corporations and the leading institutional and investor community in France.

BME, through Iberclear, BBVA and the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), have completed the first bond issuance in Spain listed in a regulated market and registered using blockchain technology developed by ioBuilders. This platform could serve as a basis for future issuances in Spain and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

BBVA has implemented a comprehensive cloud-based solution that simplifies theprocess of sending and validating information, providing carbon footprint indicators andemission reduction tracking figures. It is a platform that will enable active, data-drivenmanagement of its sustainability policies.

The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) is the first private institution in the world to implement Oxford University's Multidimensional Poverty Index to analyze the condition of the 2.8 million people it supports in five Latin American countries. This indicator gives a better understanding of the gaps in education, health and housing faced by these entrepreneurs' households and enables designing value propositions to improve their living standards.

World Finance, one of the world's leading business and finance magazines, named Garanti BBVA ‘Türkiye's Best Retail Bank’ for the eighth consecutive time. The Turkish franchise was also singled out as ‘Europe's Best Retail Bank’ for the fifth time.