José Luis Elechiguerra, a chemical engineer, born in Mexico and with more than 12 years of experience at BBVA, recently took on the role of the Global Head of Engineering and Organization at the BBVA Group.

Recently arrived from BBVA USA where he was in charge of the Client Solutions area, Elechiguerra has accepted the responsibility of being the technological enabler for the bank’s strategy. The way he sees it, without technology it is impossible to talk about sustainability, or helping customers make the best financial decisions, or any other objective set by the BBVA Group. His greatest challenges include consolidating the global application development platform, continuing to explore the potential of cloud computing, helping to make data available to be a smarter bank, and further developing the agile work model so that it expands across the entire organization.

All of this, while continuing to watch the major digital competitors and fintech companies in the rearview mirror – from whom he has learned that banks must be faster in responding to customers’ new demands, as Elechiguerra explains in this interview.

Atom bank, has confirmed that its £40m raise will be led by Toscafund Asset Management LLP and BBVA. As the bank heads towards profitability, the £40m raise includes an offer to participate for qualifying shareholders in new ‘A’ class shares in Atom priced at 60 pence.

BBVA USA was recently honored by IDG’s CIO as a U.S. 2021 CIO 100 award winner for its efforts, that took place exactly one year ago this week, in creating an online portal for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data are transforming the traditional application of tech in the world of marketing. With these tools, startups and SMEs are able to reach a more specific audience for their products at a lower cost than traditional advertising.

Spain has set itself the challenge of becoming an attractive country for emerging companies through the Strategy for Spain as an Entrepreneurial Nation. The purpose of the strategy is to promote and boost their formation and development through four milestones: investment, talent, scalability and public sector support for entrepreneurship.

The agile work methodology, new skills that teams look for or the recent inclusion of diversity as a strategic business priority are some of the ways in which BBVA’s human team has changed over the past few years. Paloma Tejada, head of Talent and Culture, Agile and Communications, at Client Solutions, BBVA, spoke about all of them in a conversation with Matthew Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum.

Generation Z expects a financial model that meets their needs in terms of digitalisation, immediacy and respect for the environment. Born at the heart of the digital age, they expect services that live up to their requirements for transparency and constant attention.

We tested OpenAI’s GPT-3 (one of the largest Artificial Intelligence (AI) language models ever created) on ten Spanish customer conversations about banking. Without any previous customization, re-training or transfer learning whatsoever, we asked it to generate summaries that would be useful to any bank agent who joins (or retakes) the conversation.

BBVA and Google Cloud today announced a new strategic partnership to transform the bank’s security strategy by optimizing and improving its security infrastructure. As part of this global agreement, BBVA will collaborate with Google Cloud in the development of groundbreaking new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models to predict and prevent cyberattacks against its banking infrastructure, providing a more secure experience for the bank and its customers.

Nearly 2.5 million people chose digital channels to become BBVA customers in 2020. The figure represents 33.3 percent of total new customers achieved throughout the Group via individual channels (offices, app, web, ATMs …) and represents a 56 percent jump with respect to new users gained digitally in 2019.

The telecommunications company Orange has become the first operator in Spain to incorporate Bizum into its means of payment. BBVA was the institution that provided the contractual and technological framework to make this possible. As of this week, all Orange customers of the Orange, Jazztel and Amena brands, regardless of their banks, will be able to carry out certain transactions with this payment method that´s faster than a card and that complies with PSD2 requirements.

BBVA plans to invest as much as $150 million in new capital to support Propel, bringing its total commitment to over $400 million, including its previous investment in 2016. The announcement builds on the initial successful relationship established five years ago, which has enabled Propel to partner with leading innovators such as Coinbase, DocuSign, Hippo, Guideline, and Neon.

Garanti BBVA launches ‘Garanti Portföy Temiz Enerji Karma Fon’, an innovative fund that invests in capital market instruments tied to Turkish and international companies in the sector of clean, renewable and alternative energy technologies.

This year, the Davos Forum will be celebrating its most special and challenging edition, in the midst of the ongoing COVID pandemic. For this reason, the 51st edition of the World Economic Forum (World Economic Forum, WEF) will be held in two phases: An virtual one in January and another one, face-to-face, in August. The summit will convene politicians, businessmen and representatives of social and cultural organizations at a crucial time for the world, under the tagline ‘The Great Reset‘.

The emergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain has exponentially multiplied the volume of data used, putting current computer systems to the test. Despite the fact that the arrival of 5G promises an improvement in these limitations, it is not enough to respond to the performance demands of this latest generation technology. An alternative to this is edge computing.

Central bank-backed digital currencies, such as the potential digital euro and digital yuan, may become a reality in the coming years. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, these currencies promise less volatility and greater security. In addition, they will have the support of their respective monetary institutions, responsible for ensuring financial stability.

Pressure to get on board with remote working, adapting to the changes in a market revolutionised by the pandemic, and dealing with customers who have new and urgent needs. Startups have faced unprecedented challenges in 2020, but their digital DNA has helped them make fast decisions to handle these tests.

Garanti BBVA offers its clients an advanced long-term currency transaction service through its Forward product, available on its website’s business section.

BBVA and Anthemis are participating in the second $3.4 million funding round that Cledara recently held. The startup now has 150 clients thanks to its innovative SaaS (Software as a Service) solution to centralize payment systems in a single platform.

The tokenisation of assets via blockchain could facilitate new financing pathways, guarantee secure investments and programme digital money so that it can only be used for certain purposes, although the associated regulations have not yet materialised.

BBVA has begun to roll out the trials of what will become its first commercial service for the trading and custody of digital assets. The new service, which is to be offered through BBVA Switzerland, will make it possible to manage bitcoin transactions and have deposits in this cryptocurrency.

BBVA has launched a service in Spain that allows customers to instantaneously and securely pay for lottery tickets and bets and collect winnings using their mobile phone. By going to the bank’s app, customers can use Bizum to generate a QR code that allows them to pay or collect money at 11,000 Loterías y Apuestas del Estado retailers. This is the first time that people have been able to pay in physical stores using Bizum and a QR code.

This award recognizes BBVA Next Technologies’ commitment using technology to face COVID-19 crisis.

The European Banking Federation recently organized a conference on innovation and cybersecurity where the role of banks in the digital economy and platform economy was discussed, among other topics. According to BBVA, the key to ensuring that financial services benefit from this economy is the creation of a framework for the different types of participating companies to compete fairly.

It’s a challenge to find out what society thinks about a company or brand, especially when you have 40 million followers spread across 10 countries and 190 social media profiles, like BBVA. Even so, the winners of the BBVA Hackathon 2020 accomplished it in only three days, developing a tool to measure users’ feelings about the bank on social media, using machine learning techniques.

The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation has awarded BBVA the Special Mention in Design, in the Company category, of the Spanish Innovation and Design Awards 2020. The jury has chosen BBVA for “its ability to build solid bridges between traditional business areas and the world of strategic design.”

Biometric advances are already being used in a multitude of financial sector processes. Artificial intelligence can analyse speech and facial characteristics to create a digital identity that allows for a much more secure online setting, where there’s a proliferation of apps from customised services to health care.

The teams will have 40 uninterrupted hours to solve one of the 12 programming challenges posed by BBVA.

BBVA remains committed to this global network, participating in a new pilot project with which it has managed to integrate payments from the SWIFT gpi network with the U.K.’s national instant payment system. Progress that makes it possible to break away from the time zone restrictions in the process, going one step further in the exploration of this kind of payment.

BBVA has launched Aqua, a new line of pioneering credit cards in Spain which feature a dynamic CVV code and do not contain card numbers (PAN) or expiration dates printed on them. This reinforces security both for its digital and physical versions since not having this data prevents possible fraudulent use of them. In addition, BBVA´s app has renewed the entire payment experience to make it easier for the customer to manage their expenses and order the services it offers based on their use. The bank is already working to launch this mobile experience in other countries.

BBVA is partnering with technology companies to be closer to its clients, who are starting to turn to third party digital vendors to cover their financial needs. “We see these partnerships as a way of growing our customer base,” stated Carlos Torres Vila, Group Executive Chairman of BBVA, speaking at a virtual panel discussion with Marcelo Claure, CEO of Softbank, that took place on the last day of South Summit.

Garanti BBVA launches Bonus Diji, a rewards credit card that is extremely secure, as it does not include any numbers or codes that can be copied.

The role of banks in the financial crisis caused by the pandemic and their role in funneling resources and funds towards a green recovery where the two key takeaways from a panel presentation devoted to sustainability that took place at the South Summit event, which is taking place this week in Madrid. “Everything is changing. We are living in a very challenging time. We are living in a global pandemic situation and also in a global economic crisis at this moment after the pandemic, so, it’s time to act,” said Head of Global Innovation & Analytics at BBVA CIB (Corporate Investment Banking) and Global Sustainability Office Ricardo Laiseca.

Garanti BBVA is betting on technology and innovation to continue leading the payment system and credit card sector. Now customers can complete the credit card application and authorization process on Bonus’ website and start enjoying all of the benefits immediately.

Blue is a virtual assistant that uses various artificial intelligence tools to help BBVA customers use the mobile application to complete tasks as well get detailed, personalized information about their accounts. This is how it works.

On May 25, 2020, the General Data Protection Regulation celebrated its second year of entry into application. As envisaged in the standard itself, the European Commission performed an assessment on its application and functioning over this period of time, taking into account the feedback provided by associations, companies, consumers and EU institutions. The commission has finally released the corresponding findings, which concludes that, on top of having a very positive impact, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated that the Regulation is prepared for the new digital age