Economy
Economy
BBVA placed €1 billion in a contingent convertible bond (known as CoCo or AT1) in euros this Monday, with demand reaching more than €5.250 billion. The issue price was set at 5.625 percent, significantly lower than the initial price guidance of 6.125 percent.
This Friday, October 31, BBVA is starting the €993 million share buyback program announced earlier this year, which had been pending execution. This buyback is part of the bank’s ordinary shareholder distribution for the 2024 financial year and contributes to the €13 billion BBVA plans to return to shareholders in the short term (€36 billion between 2025 and 2028) in dividends and share buybacks¹.
The rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has upgraded BBVA’s rating by one notch, from A to A+, matching Spain’s sovereign rating, with a stable outlook. “BBVA continues to deliver solid risk-adjusted returns and it is our view that BBVA’s financial strength is now in line with that of larger and more diversified European and global peers,” S&P noted.
In June, the European Commission rolled out a long‑awaited package to simplify the EU securitization framework, revive the market and safeguard financial stability. The proposal marks the first legislative step under the Savings and Investment Union (SIU) strategy, which seeks to channel European savings into capital‑market investment, giving retail savers better returns and firms new sources of finance.
MiCA, the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, has been fully in force for just over six months. This milestone also marks the first complete year for its stablecoin rules. The law’s passage was hard‑won, and its rollout has been steady but measured.
This past Wednesday, BBVA issued a 10-year senior non-preferred (SNP) green bond worth €1 billion and maturing in 2035. Demand for the bond peaked at €2.9 billion, reflecting strong investor appetite for green-labelled instruments. At the close of the issue, the price was set at mid-swap plus 108 basis points, significantly below the initial guidance of mid-swap plus 135 basis points, making it the lowest spread achieved on a 10-year SNP by a Southern European financial institution since 2021.
Following the assessment of the condition imposed by the Spanish Council of Ministers on June 24, 2025, BBVA is to move forward with the acquisition of Banco Sabadell as “the project creates significant value for the shareholders of both entities and represents a unique opportunity to build one the most competitive and innovative banks in Europe. Together we will be a stronger institution, with greater scale and the capacity to increase lending to households and business by €5 billion annually, thereby supporting the economic growth of our country,” BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila said.
BBVA’s Turkish franchise has successfully completed the issuance of a $500 million Tier 2 bond in the international markets. This marks the bank’s first such transaction in 2025, following a $750 million Tier 2 issue in November 2024.
The BBVA Chair recalled this Wednesday that the BBVA Sabadell transaction has received over 27 approvals, including from the CNMC, following a process that has been “more rigorous and longer than ever before.” In an interview with Carlos Alsina on Onda Cero’s ‘Más de uno’ show, Carlos Torres Vila underscored that the integration with Banco Sabadell is a transaction between two private actors. “The truth is that what really serves the public interest is for Banco Sabadell shareholders to be able to decide whether to accept the offer,” he said. “We are confident that they will decide to join this great project.”
With the slogan ‘Go Further’ as the central theme, nearly 1,600 BBVA professionals gathered in Madrid to explore the Group’s new 2025–2029 strategic plan. Officially presented in February, the teams responsible for the plan’s design and execution are now working through the details. At the opening of the event, BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila and CEO Onur Genç reflected on the achievements of the previous plan (2021-2024): profitable growth, over 14 million new target customers, and the early fulfillment of the sustainable business commitment, channeling €300 billion of sustainable finance one year ahead of schedule. They also conveyed their vision of the future: a competitive scenario, full of opportunity.
On Thursday, April 10, BBVA will pay a supplementary dividend of €0.41 per share. Added to the interim dividend paid in October, the total payout for 2024 rises to €0.70 per share, the bank’s highest since 2007. BBVA has also announced a €993 million share buyback. Through dividends and the buyback, the bank will return a combined €5.03 billion to shareholders this year, half of its 2024 profit.
BBVA has appointed Carlos Sanz-Pastor as Global Head of Internal Audit, replacing Joaquín Gortari Díez, who is leaving the bank following a successful career of 35 years. Meanwhile, Carlos Sanz-Pastor has been part of Internal Audit for more than two decades and, since 2015, was responsible for this unit’s strategy.
On Friday, BBVA held its Annual General Meeting in Bilbao, where the Chair, Carlos Torres Vila, took stock of an excellent year. During his presentation, he underscored that BBVA, “with its strategic plan, aims to consolidate its business growth, multiply its contribution to society and create value for everyone.” In his opinion, it is crucial that Europe and Spain have banks with the right scale to take on the challenges posed by the new global landscape. In this context, BBVA is proposing the integration with Banco Sabadell as a “clear commitment to Spain and its companies.” Carlos Torres Vila stressed that with this transaction “both BBVA and Banco Sabadell shareholders will become the owners of a bank better prepared for the future.”
On Friday, March 21st at 12:00 PM (CET), BBVA will hold its 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Euskalduna Conference Center in Bilbao (Spain). BBVA is making it easier for its shareholders to participate in the AGM by offering a hybrid model, combining in-person attendance with the option of remote participation. To participate remotely, shareholders need to register in advance on the Remote Attendance Portal. Furthermore, the bank’s corporate website will broadcast the event via webcast.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA) filed on February 21, 2025 with the Securities and Exchange Commission BBVA´s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2024.
BBVA has received the approval of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) to acquire indirect control of Banco Sabadell’s Mexican banking franchise. BBVA has now received all the necessary authorizations from Mexican regulators.
For yet another year, the bank stood out among comparable European peers for its unique combination of growth of its lending portfolio (14 percent yoy in constant euros), and profitability, with ROTE of 19.7 percent. In 2024 the Group added 11.4 million new customers and channeled €99 billion in sustainable business, reaching the €300-billion¹ goal one year ahead of schedule. Between January and December, BBVA posted a net attributable profit of €10.1 billion, up 25 percent. Earnings per share² saw a higher increase, 28 percent, on the back of a share buyback. Against 2024 earnings, BBVA will pay a cash dividend of €0.70 per share³, 27 percent more than in 2023, and will execute a new share buyback program for €993 million⁴. In total, BBVA will distribute €5.03 billion to its shareholders.
¹Accumulated since 2018.
²Earnings per Share (EPS) figures considering end of period number of shares.
³Of this amount, €0.29 per share were paid in October as interim dividend of 2024. The additional payout of €0.41 per share is subject to the approval by the bank’s governing bodies.
⁴Subject to approval from the bank’s governing bodies and from corresponding regulators.
BBVA has appointed Antonio Bravo as the Global Head of Data. He will replace Ricardo Martín Manjón, who’s leaving the bank to embark on new professional projects.
On Tuesday, BBVA issued a contingent convertible (CoCo or AT1) bond in the amount of $1 billion dollars, with an early redemption option in seven years. The operation kicks off the 2025 debt market, making BBVA the first EU bank to issue debt in this format this year. With this transaction, the bank is reinforcing its ability to diversify sources of funding.
The Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) has granted approval for BBVA to indirectly acquire Banco Sabadell's shares in various subsidiaries in Mexico. Cofece's analysis determined that the transaction poses no risk to competition in the Mexican banking sector.
Garanti BBVA has successfully completed a new Basel III-compliant Tier 2 bond issuance, demonstrating the bank’s strong position in international markets. This marks its second Tier 2 bond this year. The bond was issued with a 10-year maturity, a five-year call option, and a total value of $750 million. Garanti BBVA also extended a tender offer to its investors for the $750 million nominal value of the Tier 2 bond it issued in 2017, with a 2027 maturity.
BBVA shareholders will receive on Oct. 10 a gross dividend, against 2024 earnings, of €0.29 per share, 81 percent higher than a year earlier. This is the highest interim dividend to be paid by BBVA to date. The bank will thus distribute about €1.7 billion in cash to shareholders. Following this dividend, from 2021 BBVA will have distributed about €15 billion in dividends and share buybacks.
In order to take the service and customer experience to the next level, BBVA creates two specialized global areas for each customer segment: Commercial Client Solutions, which will be led by Jaime Sáenz de Tejada; and Retail Client Solutions, with David Puente at the helm. Additionally, the bank is creating a global unit at the highest level of the organization, Digital Banks, which will be headed by Murat Kalkan. All of these units will report directly to Onur Genç, CEO of BBVA. The bank also announces other changes at the first executive level of the Group.
BBVA Research is forecasting GDP growth of 2.6 percent for Catalonia in 2024, outpacing the average for Spain (2.5 percent). It also reckons that GDP will grow by 2.1 percent in 2025, supported by a wider economic improvement across Europe, albeit shackled by tourism, which is nearing maximum capacity in peak season. If these forecasts are met, in 2025 the GDP of the Catalan economy would be 7 points above the 2019 level. This growth comes on the back of a strong services sector, coupled with a recent improvement in industry, which are managing to offset weak exports of goods. For the third year running, Catalonia has outperformed Spain when it comes to GDP growth, as reflected in the creation of new jobs, with more sizable increases seen in Barcelona and Girona. In addition, the unemployment rate might well fall to 8.3 percent in 2025 and 192,000 new jobs could be created by the end of 2025. According to these forecasts, Catalonia is expected to create the most new jobs over this year and the next.
BBVA has completed the sale of a portfolio of unsecured non-performing loans valued at approximately €270 million. This transaction is expected to positively impact the bank's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in Spain, which was 4.11 percent at the close of the first quarter of 2024.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez; the President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; and Carlos Torres Vila, Chair of BBVA and Co-Chairman of the Spanish-Turkish Business Council, opened the Spain -Türkiye Business Meeting, which was held on Thursday at Ciudad BBVA in Madrid.