Annual General Meeting 2017

The Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao hosted BBVA’s annual meeting with its shareholders for yet another year. Group Executive Chairman Francisco González maintained that the bank’s transformation into a digital business is “delivering very tangible results. We have a clear strategic plan, we have the tools, we have the teams and we are already in the plan’s execution stage.”

Carlos Torres Vila who began his address explaining BBVA’s new purpose: to bring the age of opportunity to everyone, in other words, to have a positive impact on people’s and businesses’ lives.

BBVA’s Executive Chairman also said that the “digital transformation is having a very positive impact on how customers perceive both BBVA and the service we provide.” More than anything, they value simplicity, convenience, efficiency, swiftness and usefulness, in addition to employees’ polite and helpful attitude.

The Group Executive Chairman then went on to discuss some of the bank’s financials. “2016 was a very good year for BBVA. In a complex environment, our profit increased by almost 32%, we’ve bolstered our risk profile and strengthened our capital base,” he noted. This result relied on “income growth, our cost-containment efforts and lower impairment losses on financial assets,” he reported.

In the U.S. performance “improved as the year advanced,” said Carlos Torres Vila. The area focused on profitable growth and cost containment efforts. Oil prices recovered and we released some provisions. He also noted that the outlook for 2017 is positive, thanks to BBVA Compass’ positive sensitivity to interest rates increases.

Francisco González said that the Group’s strategy is to “set a new standard of service in banking by creating more and better opportunities for customers because they will benefit the most from BBVA’s technological progress and transformation.”