Sustainable Finance

BBVA reinforces its strategy in Latin America with an ambitious expansion plan in Brazil, the largest wholesale market in the region. With a growing team and a strong focus on sustainability, the entity plans to deploy local capabilities by 2025 to serve more than 250 key companies in Brazil.

BBVA and leading global investment firm KKR have formed a new strategic partnership to support the decarbonization of the economy. As part of the strategic partnership, BBVA has committed $200M (€187 million¹) to KKR´s Global Climate Strategy, which invests in solutions at scale to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Both companies made the announcement during Climate Week, which is being held in New York this week.

Header photo, from left to right: Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Partner, Global Co-Head of Climate at KKR; Javier Rodríguez Soler, Global Head of Sustainability and Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) at BBVA; Regina Gil, Head of CIB USA BBVA; Charlie Gailliot, Partner, Global Co-Head of Climate at KKR; Antonio Bravo, Global Head of Sustainability & CIB Strategy and Corporate Clients Coverage at BBVA.

BBVA Group opened a new office in Houston with the aim of leading the financing of the energy transition in the United States. This move to support its sustainability is spurred by the BBVA´s Group´s plans for growth in the country and forms part of its Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) operations in the United States.

Cleantech, or new clean technologies, are all those technologies that will allow us, or at least should allow us, to achieve the EU’s overarching goal of becoming net zero in emissions by 2050. They are innovative solutions, in many cases disruptive and predicated on innovation and technology. Many of them are still in an embryonic stage. Other more mature proposals need funding to grow and, above all, to make them profitable and scalable for industrial applications.

We’re here to talk about all this with Alberto Toril Castro, energy sector manager at Breakthrough Energy, a platform featuring various climate funds and founded by Bill Gates. As an advocate of affordable green energy, he firmly believes that “electrification is the future of the economy.” He calls for more public-private partnerships in the cleantech ecosystem and proclaims that “financial institutions play a key role when it comes to decarbonization.”

Garanti BBVA has been honored as Türkiye’s "Best Private Bank for Sustainable Finance" at the Global Sustainable Finance Awards, organized by The Digital Banker magazine, a globally trusted news, business intelligence, research and awards body, servicing the worldwide financial services sector.

BBVA has earned a rating of EE (“strong compliance”), making it the highest-rated bank in Spain and tied for second place worldwide with other entities, according to the latest update of the Standard Ethics Rating (SER). This assessment covers the ESG scores of Europe's 40 largest banks by market capitalization.

BBVA and Malta Inc. (“Malta”), a pioneering company in electro-thermal long-duration energy storage solutions, whose corporate goals align with the advancement of decarbonization using innovative cleantech, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This agreement lays the groundwork for a strategic partnership aimed at developing innovative financial solutions to support the deployment in the Iberian Peninsula of Malta’s first-of-a-kind (FOAK) energy storage project. It´s a pioneering cleantech collaboration announced at Breakthrough Energy Summit in London

“BBVA is a great ally for Spanish companies as they take on their sustainable transition and international expansion,” remarked Javier Rodríguez Soler, Global Head of Sustainability and CIB at BBVA. His presentation was part of the 41st Seminar organized by Spanish financial press association APIE and titled ‘The role of businesses in the new economy’, being held in Santander. “At BBVA, we support and accompany our clients, and not only multinational firms, but also those companies that need more specific advice to help them continue to grow,” he said.

BBVA will issue a total amount of $50 million and the resources will be used to  finance projects focusing on reforestation, the regeneration of natural forests on degraded land, mangrove conservation or restoration, climate-smart agriculture, and wildlife habitat restoration, among others.

BBVA is expanding its intermediate emission reduction targets for 2030 to two new sectors: the real estate sector in Spain and the global aluminum industry. They join the list of targets for eight emission-intensive sectors previously set by the bank (oil & gas; power generation; automobile; steel; cement; coal; aviation and shipping).

BBVA's decarbonization targets: What do they mean and what is their scope?

“In recent years, we have been increasing our business in key sectors while reducing their emissions,” said the Global Head of Sustainability and CIB at BBVA, Javier Rodríguez Soler. “We set decarbonization targets for eight key sectors and are reducing the absolute and relative emissions of these sectors. And we are doing so while increasing our financing business with these clients,” he stated at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) European Summit in Paris.

Antoni Ballabriga, Global Head of Sustainability Intelligence & Advocacy at BBVA and member of the EU High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Scaling Up Sustainable Finance in Low and Middle-income Countries, explains the key findings and recommendations that the HLEG will submit to the European Commission.

BBVA mobilized €20 billion in sustainable business in the first quarter of 2024, up 41 percent on the same period last year. The bank is now ahead of the curve in achieving its goal of mobilizing €300 billion between 2018 and 2025, having already reached €226 billion. Of this figure, 77 percent will go toward combating climate change and 23 percent to promoting inclusive growth.

BBVA closed 2023 reporting good progress in decarbonizing its credit portfolio. Improvements in plan delivery reached 24 percent in key sectors —such as oil and gas— for which 2030 targets were set. As of December 2023, 80% of the finance portfolio in high-emission sectors relates to clients actively managing their transition, according to the latest TCFD report published by the bank.

It is the BBVA Group’s first ever blue bond, which are securities used to finance projects geared toward ocean sustainability and the Blue Economy.

BBVA was selected as one of the bookrunners for Colombia's first issue of social bonds in the international market. The debt was rated Baa2/BB+/BB+ for its inaugural offering and was denominated in US dollars with a dual-tranche format maturing in 2035 and 2053. It is an integral part of the Colombian government’s sustainable strategy, and is the first time the country has issued social bonds and only its second issue under ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) criteria, following the placement of Green Treasury Notes in 2021, in which BBVA also acted as lead bookrunner.

BBVA mobilized €15.6 billion in sustainable corporate business between January and September 2023 (up 95 percent from the same period the previous year) and €7.3 billion in retail banking (up 69 percent). Both segments have consolidated growth in the mobilization of sustainable business.

The agreement between Hochschild Mining and BBVA is a ‘Club Deal’ facility totaling $200 million in favor of the mining companies Ares and Amarillo Mineraçao do Brasil.

With BBVA financing, Supermercados Peruanos seeks to have a direct impact on the percentage of recycled waste and to increase the number of people benefiting from its food donation program ‘Bueno por dentro’ (Good on the inside).

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila stated that "the investment necessary for the economy to function without emissions must make economic sense, since a large part of it will come from the private sector." At a round table hosted by UNEP FI in Madrid, he stressed that "decarbonization will occur when investments in emerging green technologies prove profitable."

From April to June 2023, BBVA channeled around €19 billion in sustainable business. This figure, showing growth of around 30 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, sets a new quarterly record. In total, BBVA channeled €169 billion in sustainable business from 2018 to June 2023, well over half of the €300 billion target laid down for the 2018-2025 period.

BBVA and Tiendas Ara, a major chain of discount stores,  have teamed up to offer a new line of social-impact reverse factoring. The aim is to provide Ara’s suppliers, mainly micro, small and medium-size companies, with access to more affordable finance solutions. In line with the commitment to narrow inequalities and build lasting relationships with local suppliers to boost domestic production and foster job creation, Tiendas Ara is the first company to join this initiative in Colombia.

BBVA Asset Management published its first report on environmental activity, based on the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate Financial Disclosures (TCFD). It is the first Spanish asset manager to make this commitment to transparency. The report includes the environmental progress of the asset management area and incorporates information on the risks and opportunities associated with climate change.

BBVA’s Turkish unit has renewed its syndicated loan agreement obtained from international markets within the scope of its foreign borrowing program and in accordance with social sustainability criteria.

Spain is a key market to promote sustainability at BBVA. In the first quarter of 2023, the bank channeled €7.81 billion euros in sustainable business in this market - up 40 percent from the same period last year and more than 50 percent of the total amount (approximately €14 billion) mobilized by the BBVA Group. “Over half of our sustainable business was channeled in Spain in the first quarter of the year, a new record,” the BBVA CEO said this Wednesday at the 18th Meeting of the Banking Sector organized by IESE.

BBVA has channeled 150 billion euros in sustainable business from 2018 to March 2023, half of the €300 billion target set for the 2018-2025 period. Nearly 14 billion euros was mobilized in the year's first quarter, an increase of almost 20 percent compared to the same period in 2022. “Quarter after quarter we are making good progress towards achieving our sustainable business goal for 2025,” said Javier Rodríguez Soler, BBVA’s Global Head of Sustainability, commenting on these results.

To promote sustainable growth in the country, BBVA Mexico, González Calvillo (GC), PwC Mexico and the UN Environment Program held the first edition of the ESG Summit Mexico, in which -with the participation of experts and guests from organizations such as S&P, BlackRock and the Mexican Sustainable Finance Council-, the main aspects that a company must know to include environmental, social and corporate governance criteria into its business model were addressed.

BBVA Mexico reaffirms its commitment to the environment and climate change by issuing its second green bond in the local market, the first issue under the BBVA Group's Sustainable Debt Financing Framework updated in November 2022.

The global carbon credit trading platform Carbonplace has raised 45 million dollars in a seed funding round and has been incorporated as its own entity. BBVA, one of the nine founding banks, has participated in this round and has appointed its Head of Carbon Markets at BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking, Ingo Ramming, as a representative on Carbonplace's Board of Directors.