2017 Year in Review: Creating Opportunities

The tagline quickly parlayed into a mission to help companies and people stay in control and make better financial decisions through trusted advice and easy, fast and convenient solutions. The mission was extended by President and CEO Onur Genç’s emphasis on the role of the bank as a service organization, or simply said, people serving people.

Throughout the year, the bank honed its efforts in all areas to focus on being the engine of opportunity for clients so that it could help them achieve their dreams and meet their needs, from its work in digital transformation to the opportunities it created for people and the ways it demonstrated the importance of its employees in the bank’s success.

For examples of work the bank did to create opportunities for its clients and communities in 2017, read below.

Creating Opportunities for: Digital Transformation

The bank’s focus on digital responds to consumers´ increasing digital behaviors and helps improve the customer experience. The investment is paying off. As sales have been launched through digital channels, production has ramped up significantly. For example, digital production in credit cards is 44% of the total. And the bank is poised to disrupt the $1.3 trillion online consumer loan marketplace when it launches its fully digital Express Personal Loan to the open market.

• In January, new BBVA Compass CEO Onur Genç offered his first extended public comments since his appointment to the bank's top office, appearing via video on bbva.com with BBVA Group CEO Carlos Torres to talk about their impressions of the U.S. banking landscape and the opportunities for BBVA Compass. Read more by clicking here.

• When it comes to applying for a personal loan easily and quickly, look no further than BBVA Compass Express Personal Loans. The loan features potential same-day closing and funding upon final approval, alongside a host of other consumer-friendly features, including competitive low rates, making it one of the bank’s premiere consumer loan products. Read more here.

• Do you know what banking and jazz have in common? Find out here.

• BBVA Compass Insurance Agency, an affiliate of BBVA Compass, partnered with Boise-based Covr Financial Technologies, a digital personal insurance platform, to offer insurance seekers direct control over the insurance-buying process with turnkey access to quotes and product information from a network of carriers. Read more here.

• BBVA Wallet, the bank's mobile wallet with a full slate of functionality, further enhanced its features, adding Mobile Location Confirmation (MLC). Click here for more.

• BBVA Compass improved mobile account origination in version 5.0 of its award winning mobile app. Read more here.

• BBVA Compass announced that some of its branches in Houston and Dallas will serve as offer day pick-up locations for Amazon's Treasure Truck. More here.

• BBVA Compass was recognized as a leader in Financial Fitness from Javelin Strategy & Research in its 2017 Online Banking Scorecard, with independent research firm spotlighting the bank for providing a notable online banking experience that guides customers on a financial journey. Click here for more.

• BBVA Compass was recognized as a leader in the most critical category in Javelin Strategy & Research’s 2017 Mobile Banking Scorecard, with the independent research firm commending the bank’s app for its ease of use in creating an intuitive, mobile-first experience for its clients. Read more here.

Creating Opportunities for: People

BBVA Compass is an engine of opportunity to help people achieve their dreams. As part of our corporate social responsibility, the banks endeavors to invest time and money in local communities, and commits itself to reaching low- to moderate-income areas.

• As part of its annual effort to bring the Vault financial education program, developed by education technology firm EverFi, into schools across the BBVA Compass footprint at no cost to the schools or school districts, the bank tipped off an NBA Cares event in April to inspire and teach financial literacy to students at Houston's John F. Kennedy Elementary School. Read more by clicking here.

• BBVA Compass selected its inaugural class of social entrepreneurs for BBVA Momentum, an intensive seven-month training program for entrepreneurs who want to change the world through their work. More here.

• BBVA Compass shored up its commitment to alleviating Colorado's affordable-housing crisis, closing a $1.8 million equity equivalent investment in the Mile High Community Loan Fund. Read more here.

• BBVA Compass helped tackle the Rio Grande Valley's digital divide with innovative pilot program that included free internet access. Click here for more.

• Low- to moderate-income seniors have a new place to call home in Huntsville, Ala., after the grand opening on June 15 of Lenox Park Apartments, a 60-unit development financed by BBVA Compass. Read more here.

• Soon after Harvey left a trail of devastation and flooding in Texas, the bank announced that its foundation will donate $250,000 to the American Red Cross and the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund to aid disaster recovery efforts in Texas. The bank said it also planned to raise, online and at its branches, up to $250,000 in employee and customer contributions, which it later said it would match, for a total contribution of up to $750,000. The funds earmarked for American Red Cross were used to assist the victims of Hurricane Irma as well. Read more here and here.

• BBVA Compass closed a $5 million equity investment in Pathway Lending, becoming the largest investor in Alabama's effort to build up small businesses in the state's Appalachian region. Click here to read more.

• BBVA Compass and KIPP Houston Public Schools cut the ribbon Monday on the charter school system’s newest campus: the BBVA Compass Opportunity Campus, home of KIPP NEXUS Primary School and KIPP NEXUS Middle School in Northwest Houston. More here.

• For half a decade, the BBVA Compass Foundation’s Project Blue Elf campaign has created opportunities for a total of more than 20,000 students across the country during its existence, filling them with holiday joy and handing out toys during a time of giving. The foundation’s signature holiday initiative, wrapped up its fifth anniversary this month and reached more than 5,500 students in 30 markets across the bank’s footprint. Click here for more on the campaign.

Creating Opportunities to: Know BBVA Compass

With the 2017 debut of its global tagline, “Creating Opportunities,” BBVA captured and strengthened BBVA Compass’ purpose: to create opportunities for everyone. The bank’s marketing and branding efforts align with this tagline where it creates opportunities for its communities through local activations and partnerships.

• In early 2017, BBVA Compass was the primary supporter of various game-related events and initiatives around professional football’s biggest event, including a massive volunteer program. The bank showcased Houston, a city chosen to host one of the most notable sporting events in the country and world. Initiatives ranged from exclusive private client meals, a published roadmap showcasing city hotspots, a complimentary bike program to reduce traffic congestion, and a gathering with a legendary sports agent to recognize a legendary football player. More here.

• BBVA Compass appointed Houston Dash forward Kealia Ohai as the bank's newest brand ambassador. Read more by clicking here.

• BBVA Compass conducted its "Summer of Opportunity" initiative for the second straight year, brightening people's future with gift cards, a "pay-it-forward" attitude, and a newly-added small business component. More here.

• BBVA Compass sponsored  the Houston Pride Parade for the fifth year in a row, putting its signature blue colors atop the main festival entrance in a show of support for one of the nation's largest Pride Celebrations. Click here for more.

• The bank’s Bright Perspectives series made another round of visits across the country in 2017, bringing the world’s most famous hacker, Kevin Mitnick, to client forums where he gave cybersecurity tips and hacking demonstrations to those in attendance. The bank frequently holds Bright Perspectives forums for clients across its footprint each year, bringing leading minds and insights for a unique experience. More here.

• BBVA Compass announced that it completed a new agreement to team up and create opportunities with the WNBA's San Antonio Stars. Read more here.

• BBVA Compass brand ambassador James Harden of the Houston Rockets made a surprise announcement at Birmingham’s Parker High School saying that the bank will bring a preseason game to Birmingham, between the Rockets and an as-yet-unnamed team in 2018, for the first time in more than a decade. More here.

• One of the top chefs in the world visited Denver in 2017, delighting guests with whimsically designed dishes, unique wine pairings and an atmosphere usually found in a small part of Spain. Jordi Roca, co-owner of the renowned Girona, Spain-based El Celler de Can Roca – alongside his brothers, Head Chef Joan and Sommelier Josep – came to Colorado and created a multi-course meal for two dinners on Nov. 1 and 2. More here.

• BBVA Compass has agreed to a multiyear agreement with the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company AEG to create opportunities for customers across the country, including events, concerts and brand activations at some of AEG’s key venues. Click here for more.

Creating Opportunities for: Employees

BBVA Compass values the diverse backgrounds of all employees, customers, vendors and communities. Through workplace diversity and inclusion, we are tapping the uniqueness of every BBVA Compass team member to help create a more well-rounded, innovative and competitive organization.

• BBVA Compass Talent & Culture Executive Rosilyn Houston was among a group of corporate female heavyweights named by Black Enterprise as 2017's "Most Powerful Women in Business". Read more by clicking here.

• BBVA Compass landed on DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies for Diversity list for the first time in 2017, a reflection of the bank's commitment to building a workforce and supplier pipeline that fully reflect the clients and businesses it serves. Read more here.

• The Aspen Institute named BBVA Compass Director of Corporate Responsibility & Reputation Reymundo Ocañas one of its 2017 First Mover Fellows this week, recognizing him as a leading "intrapreneur" who is working within his company to help solve some of the world's most pressing social and environmental challenges. More here.

• BBVA Compass received a perfect score of 100 percent on the 2018 Corporate Equality Index, a measure of workplace equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees that serves as a benchmark for some of the country’s largest and most influential workplaces. Click here for more.

Creating Opportunities for: Clients

BBVA Compass is an organization made up of people serving people, and our customers are critical to our success. We strive to serve them in a holistic manner, from personal interactions to digital product opportunities. In whatever we do, we want to ensure that the client comes first.

• Out of the 600 national banks evaluated by research-based financial consulting firm, Greenwich Associates, BBVA Compass earned a spot as a customer service leader in cash management among the 37 institutions recognized by midsize businesses for excellence in middle market banking. More here.

• BBVA Compass economist offers reality check on robots, says large-scale job losses won't happen in report, "When Robots Do It All and Leisure Is Mandatory: Not for Another 100 Years.” Read more here.

• BBVA Compass announced the appointment of Çagrı Süzer as Head of Retail Banking and Jorge Ortiz as Head of Engineering, roles that are crucial to the bank's efforts to achieve excellence in customer experience through digital transformation and branch banking. Click here for more.

• For customer’s building new homes, BBVA Compass gives some helpful advice. More here.

• BBVA Compass President and CEO Onur Genç talk to the Houston Chronicle about how the bank’s digital innovations will help customers. Read more here.

• American Banker calls President and CEO Onur Genç’s growth plan “offbeat.” Why? Because as Genç says, “We are doing whatever is good for the customer.” More here.

• The Birmingham Business Journal interview President and CEO Onur Genç on a variety of topics, among them the importance of branches and digital, together. More on this important topic can be found here.

• It's been nearly a year since Onur Genc took over as CEO of BBVA Compass, and that year has seen the company position itself both in its traditional bank locations and for the digital future, says al.com’s William Thornton. Read Thornton’s article here.