BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila took part in the closing ceremony of the BBVA Spark Summit 2025 in Barcelona, the leading event for startups, scaleups and investors. In a dialogue with BBVA Spark Global Head Santiago Muguruza, he stressed AI’s central role in customer service and outlined a series of strategic AI projects designed to deliver excellence in customer‑relationship processes, customization and efficiency.

The Spanish Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of President José Luis Bonet and Director General Inmaculada Riera, organized a meeting last Friday with Teresa Ribera, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.  In his role as President of the European Affairs Commission of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, John Rutherford, Global Head of Public Affairs at BBVA, was tasked with moderating the meeting and guiding the discussions. The event fostered an enriching dialogue between the senior representative of the European Commission and the business community around European challenges in sustainability and competitiveness in a changing and uncertain geopolitical context.

Antoni Ballabriga, Global Head of Sustainability Intelligence at BBVA, shares the key takeaways from New York Climate Week 2025, within the broader framework of the UN General Assembly. Climate Week NYC is widely regarded as a flagship event in championing sustainability alongside the COP conferences.

“Since the global financial crisis, Spanish non-financial corporates and households have cut their leverage by more than the European average,” said BBVA’s Global Head of Commercial & Institutional Client Solutions, Jaime Sáenz de Tejada. In his opinion, this has given the banking sector in Spain “robust growth margins and a highly resilient model.” At an event organized by AEB and CECA in Frankfurt on Tuesday, Sáenz de Tejada pointed to “diversification as one of the keys to the success of Spanish banking.”

BBVA CEO Onur Genç said on Tuesday that the acceptance period for the takeover bid for Banco Sabadell is progressing well ahead of expectations. Genç participated in the 16th Financial Meeting organized by KPMG and business daily Expansión in Madrid, where he emphasized the positive response from shareholders, both institutional and retail, who are backing the transaction. He reiterated his belief that BBVA will comfortably exceed the 50 percent acceptance threshold thanks to the financial appeal and strategic rationale of the offer. He also stressed that “waiting for a hypothetical second bid makes no sense, as it would be highly unlikely and would offer no advantages in terms of price, timing or taxation. Shareholders who do not tender their shares will be left out and will not benefit from the price being offered,” he said.

Garanti BBVA Pensions was honored with the silver award in the Digital Transformation category of the Smart-i Awards for its innovative approach to digitizing insurance sales on Garanti BBVA Mobile.

Following the recent upgrade of BBVA’s rating by S&P, another leading ratings agency, Moody’s, has raised BBVA’s rating from A3 to A2, one notch above that of Spain, with a stable outlook. The main reason behind this upgrade is the favorable performance of BBVA’s fundamentals.

From January to August 2025, BBVA reached €3.1 billion in agrifood business, a 69 percent increase over the same period in 2024. Of this amount, €2.09 billion corresponded to sustainable business, with 82 percent YoY growth. BBVA announced these figures at Fruit Attraction, one of the world’s top fruit and vegetable trade fairs, held this week in Madrid.

BBVA’s Turkish franchise has shifted a branch-only product to digital channels, enabling quicker access for clients funding sustainability-focused investments.

With South America undergoing a transformation that demands decisive investments in infrastructure, energy, agriculture, technology and mining, BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) is committed to being the strategic partner of corporations and institutions. Its offering combines innovative and sustainable financial solutions with close, hands‑on support. This is underscored by Verónica Incera, Head of CIB for South America and Argentina, who highlights the bank’s commitment to supporting its clients’ internationalisation with high‑value advice and a clear focus on their specific needs.

BBVA, in a further show of its commitment to offering innovative payment solutions, has launched a new virtual card product in Mexico alongside Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Sabre Direct Pay, Sabre Corporation’s (NASDAQ: SABR) virtual payment solution. This innovative offering in Mexico enables travel agencies to issue secure virtual card numbers (VCNs) for each payment. This improves control, integrates with backend reconciliation tools, and significantly reduces manual work and errors.

BBVA announced the renewal of its technology services agreement with Kyndryl, the leading provider of enterprise technology services, and the creation of two joint ventures in Spain and Mexico. Thanks to this agreement, the bank will improve user experience, invest in talent and guarantee the stability, security, resilience and robustness of its IT operations.

BBVA, as a founding member (and only bank), has joined the Coalition for Sustainable Procurement, a global alliance led by the United Nations Global Compact that seeks to mainstream sustainability into procurement processes and supply chains internationally.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila assured in an interview with Spanish news agency EFE that the offer for Banco Sabadell is an “exceptional opportunity that shareholders should not miss.” In his remarks, he reaffirmed his confidence in the success of the transaction and recalled that the term to tender the shares ends on October 10. “We are going to surpass 50 percent. We are absolutely certain of it because it’s an exceptional offer. It was from the start, and with the improved offer, even more so,” he said. Regarding a possible second takeover bid, he affirmed: “There’s no reason to wait because that hypothetical, uncertain second takeover bid offers no appeal compared to the offer that is already on the table—not in terms of price, not in terms of timing, and not in terms of tax treatment.” Furthermore, “BBVA would never proceed with that second bid unless the price remained the same.”

The Global Head of Sustainability and Corporate and Investment Banking at BBVA, Javier Rodríguez Soler, underscored the enormous demand for electricity and energy expected in the U.S. in the coming years, and the need to have the greatest possible variety and quantity of energy sources. “In this sense, we see a growing potential to invest in clean energy in the U.S.,” he said at the ‘Latin America, the U.S. and Spain in the Global Economy Forum’ as part of New York Climate Week activities.

The Spanish National Securities Markets Commission (CNMV) has authorized the new BBVA offer to Banco Sabadell shareholders, which involves a 10 percent increase and an improved tax treatment. The take-up period is set to resume today, Sept. 25. Banco Sabadell shareholders can now tender their shares and join the integration project with BBVA. They can do so until Oct. 10, 2025, inclusive.

BBVA’s model to finance its clients’ decarbonization was honored by the World Economic Forum’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders during New York Climate Week. The jury recognized BBVA’s solutions for its clients as best practice in the Finance category. Together with three winners from other sectors, they “show how companies can move beyond incremental change to deliver the systemic shifts needed for a net-zero, resilient global economy.”

‘First-of-a-kind’ (FOAK) is a technological term that refers to the implementation of a ’cleantech,’ or clean technology, for the first time in real conditions and on a commercial scale. These projects mark the transition from experimental development to market adoption and are fundamental to promoting the energy transition and advancing decarbonization.

BBVA once again attended the ‘Digital Assets’ Forum organized by El Confidencial. For the eighth time, the event brought together the Spanish crypto ecosystem, which is starting to move beyond the experimentation phase and roll out real services following the entry into force of MiCA. In this context, BBVA has established itself as an experienced player, as it was the first traditional European bank to offer a cryptoasset service in Switzerland in 2021, and the first to offer it in Spain. Alfonso Gómez, CEO of BBVA Switzerland, stressed the financial sector’s responsibility in supporting the consolidation of digital assets and the importance of offering customers safe, reliable solutions.

The BBVA Board of Directors has agreed to improve the offer to Banco Sabadell shareholders by 10 percent¹. In addition, the consideration will now be entirely in shares, so shareholders with capital gains would not be subject to taxation in Spain, if acceptance exceeds 50 percent of Banco Sabadell’s voting rights, as the transaction would qualify as tax neutral in that case. The Board of Directors has also agreed to waive both the possibility of making further improvements to the consideration and of extending the acceptance period.

Climate Week NYC returns September 21-28, 2025, for its 17th edition. Operating under the banner "Power On," the event will host more than 900 activities and deliver an unequivocal message: the time has come to deploy solutions at scale. As COP30 in Brazil approaches, governments, businesses, and civil society will gather to transform promises into concrete action.

BBVA has launched a new service that enables financial institutions outside Europe to send payments to Spain in just seconds, at any time of day and on any day of the year. The service significantly enhances efficiency for sending banks while allowing recipients to access funds instantly, helping corporates optimize treasury management and offering retail customers a seamless experience.

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.

BBVA’s Turkish franchise has partnered with Ivy Decarb Marketplace to help textile manufacturers cut carbon emissions. The bank will finance companies through the platform as they shift to cleaner production methods.

The investor roadshow is a cornerstone in the bond issuance process. It serves three fundamental purposes: gauging market sentiment, defining the pricing range, and securing the success of the transaction through meticulous preparation and a strategic approach. BBVA CIB organises these meetings in Europe’s leading financial hubs, with a focus on credibility, transparency, deep market insight, and flexibility, reaffirming its commitment to being the partner of choice for companies and to accompanying them throughout their growth journey.

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.