The financial institution was proclaimed the best bank in Spain and Türkiye in the sixth edition of the Sustainable Finance Awards. Global Finance also recognized BBVA as the best bank for green bonds and presented the bank the award for sustainable finance deal of the year for the agreement with Verdalia to build biomethane plants.

BBVA has earned the Top Employer 2026 certification for the fourth year running, making the bank one of the best companies to work for in Spain.

Garanti BBVA has incorporated two new features into its mobile app that let customers plan, reserve and manage their travel in one place. In partnership with Jolly, the bank has added ‘Plan Your Trip’ and ‘Add Trip’ features to the ‘My Travel’ section of its mobile app, with all travel transactions taking place seamlessly and securely on the app.

The BBVA Foundation has awarded the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences to physicists Allan MacDonald (Canada) and Pablo Jarillo-Herrero (Spain) for the discovery of a “magic angle” that makes it possible to induce superconductivity, magnetism, and other properties by rotating novel materials such as graphene. Their findings open the door to high-impact applications, ranging from lossless electricity transmission to the development of electronic devices and quantum computing technologies.

ALTÉRRA announces plans for a new $1.2bn climate co-investment vehicle with BBVA as proposed strategic LP. BBVA commits $250m¹ to the partnership reflecting the bank’s ambitions in the sustainable finance space and the expansion of its regional and international footprint. The initiative accelerates ALTÉRRA’s ambition to mobilize third-party capital at scale and expand its global network of institutional collaborators.

Garanti BBVA was recently honored with two awards at the 2025 Digital Banking Awards, organized by international financial publishing group World Finance, for the ‘Best Digital Bank in Retail Banking’ and the ‘Best Mobile Banking App.’ The awards are a reflection of the bank’s approach to digital banking and its focus on customers.

Garanti BBVA completely reshaped digital banking in 2025. With generative artificial intelligence at the heart of its digital strategy, the bank has evolved the user experience, making it more intuitive, more personalized and smarter. Garanti BBVA Mobile has transformed the banking experience by seamlessly integrating into millions of customers’ daily lives.

In an interview on BBVA’s corporate website, the bank’s Chair, Carlos Torres Vila, took stock of 2025, which he described as “a magnificent year, with BBVA in its best moment,” and shared his outlook for 2026. The bank foresees continued growth in all countries and business areas, especially in sustainability and corporate banking, driven by a strategic plan that puts customers clearly at the center. BBVA also reaffirms its ambition to lead banking in the age of artificial intelligence. In this context, the Chair underlined that between 2025 and 2028, BBVA expects to “generate €49 billion in top-quality capital,” which will be used to finance organic growth and shareholder remuneration.

BBVA closed its largest euro-denominated bond issue in the last 20 years on Wednesday. The Group tapped the market with a dual-tranche senior non-preferred debt issue worth €2 billion, which garnered demand three times the amount offered. The first tranche, featuring a three-year maturity, was placed for €750 million, with the final price set at 3-month Euribor plus 55 basis points, compared with a significantly higher initial guidance of 3-month Euribor plus 85 basis points. The second tranche, maturing in 10 years, was placed at €1.25 billion and fetched an initial price of mid-swap plus 100 basis points, versus an initial guidance of mid-swap plus 125 basis points.

Since 2005, Garanti BBVA’s program has expanded women entrepreneurs’ access to finance —over 5 billion euros in the past five years— while redefining the role a bank can play in enabling their long-term business success. The project was created to serve an underserved segment in Türkiye and has established itself as a model capable of generating measurable impact and value for the business.

Sustainability is one of BBVA's strategic priorities. In 2025, the Group has carried out significant sustainable operations across its main geographies—Spain, Mexico, Türkiye, South America, and through BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking (BBVA CIB)—in line with its goal of supporting customers through their transition and generating new business opportunities around climate, natural capital, and social issues.

BBVA offers a full ecosystem of payment solutions – from physical POS terminals to digital platforms like Social Pay or Wipöp— so the self-employed and businesses can charge their customers quickly and securely, tailored to their sales channels. The bank continues to champion innovation in payment methods as a driver of competitiveness and digitization, supporting businesses at every stage of their development.

The European Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA) marks its first year in full force this December, having been fully applicable since December 2024. With MiCA, the European Union has led the way in creating a legal framework for stablecoins and crypto-asset service providers.

The event connected entrepreneurs with representatives from 15 countries and leading global institutions, offering genuine opportunities for international collaboration, investment, and growth.

Mahmut Akten points to 2025 as a year of strong performance and value creation for Garanti BBVA, setting the foundation for a clear and forward-looking strategic agenda for 2026. Following a period of high inflation in Türkiye, the economy has entered a normalization phase. Akten says Turkish banks should prepare for another challenging year, as regulatory credit limits are expected to remain largely in place to support disinflation efforts. While some adjustments may be considered, Akten underlines that maintaining financial discipline will be critical to achieving price stability and sustained growth.

Garanti BBVA has signed one of the largest sustainability-linked loan transactions ever extended to a corporate borrower in Türkiye by acting as Sustainability Coordinator throughout the loan tenor of the €1.7 billion financing provided for the Antalya–Alanya Highway Project.

BBVA is to launch on December 22 an extraordinary share buyback program for a maximum amount of €3.96 billion, after obtaining all required authorizations. This is the largest buyback ever carried out by the Group. The program is part of the €36 billion that BBVA expects to make available for distribution to shareholders between 2025 and 2028¹, through both ordinary remuneration and additional distributions, such as this program.

Global Finance has named BBVA Best Bank for Embedded Finance in the second round of the World’s Best Digital Banks 2025 – Corporate Winners awards. The award recognizes BBVA’s leadership in developing integrated financial solutions that deliver simple, immediate, and relevant banking services directly within the environments where individuals and businesses need them.

BBVA has led a $30 million funding round in Olea, the digital platform specialized in supply chain finance solutions. With this transaction, BBVA strengthens its role as a strategic partner and key driver of Olea’s growth. The round also included participation from XDC Network, theDock, and SC Ventures, the innovation arm of Standard Chartered.

At the 'Beyond Hype: crypto meets banking at BBVA' event, BBVA Spark brought together leaders from the crypto industry such as Andrei Manuel, founder of Bit2Me, Catriona Wingate, head of banking at BVNK in Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and Kaushik Sthankiya, head of banking at Kraken. The experts analysed the factors driving the growth of crypto companies, the opportunities and challenges they face when coexisting with traditional financial infrastructures, and how collaboration with banks can make a difference.

BBVA has rolled out a roadmap, known as ‘The Eight,’ aimed at ramping up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to evolve the way the bank interacts with customers, manages risk, automates processes, and strengthens its technological capabilities. This decisive step forward in its transformation will enable the bank to radically improve its range of products and services through innovation and to structurally enhance its ways of working to boost value creation.

Image: Antonio Bravo, Head of Data at BBVA

BBVA and OpenAI have entered into a strategic alliance aimed at redefining the future of financial services through the use of artificial intelligence. The agreement, announced by Carlos Torres Vila, Chair of BBVA, and Sam Altman, CEO and Co-founder of OpenAI, marks a unique and unprecedented level of collaboration in the financial industry to build a radically customer-centric proposition and to drive a more productive and efficient operating model.

In this episode, we speak with M&G Investments, a global asset manager at the forefront of responsible and sustainable investment.

The Business Network for LGBTI Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) named BBVA as one of the leading organizations in the ‘Top Líderes LGBTI+ 2025,’ officially held on December 10 to coincide with International Human Rights Day. This recognition underscores the bank’s contributions to creating inclusive, safe and respectful work environments, as well as its commitment to equal opportunities.

The two companies have been authorized by the Central Bank of Argentina and the Secretariat of Industry and Commerce to take joint control of FCA Compañía Financiera, a firm until now wholly owned by Stellantis and specializing in auto financing for the brands owned by the auto giant.

Garanti BBVA has finalized a syndicated loan as part of its international funding program. The transaction focuses on sustainability and includes one-year (€61 million / $97.75 million), two-year (€28 million plus $157 million) and three-year $75 million) tranches. It attracted strong interest from global investors, with 49 financial institutions from 22 countries participating.