History

Gerald Holton, who was unable to attend the awards ceremony in person, received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities and Social Sciences from the President of the BBVA Foundation, Carlos Torres Vila, at his home in Cambridge (Massachusetts). "This award recognizes Holton's great contribution to the understanding of the cultural dimension of science," said Torres Vila.

On Sunday, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opened its latest in a long line of collaborations with BBVA USA: The traveling exhibition Glory of Spain: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library.

The Madrid Metro celebrated its 100th anniversary, bringing its one million daily passengers closer to the Spanish capital in a quick and sustainable manner. BBVA is especially pleased to join the centennial anniversary of its opening, made possible thanks to the financial support provided by the Banco de Vizcaya despite investors’ suspicion of this novel and pioneering form of transportation.

There is no greater witness to history than art. Present in all eras and cultures, artisticcreations have come down to our day filled with esthetic and documentary value. For that reason, the work at the BBVA Collection has very little to do with finance. It consists of caring for art, in order to preserve our history.

The oldest private domestic bank in Argentina and one of the leaders in Latin America, BBVA Francés on October 14 marked its 130th year in operation and its 21st year as part of the BBVA Group. In the course of its history, BBVA Francés has gone from being a 20th century “temple of money,” to a powerhouse of digital banking in the Argentina of the 21st century.

The number of companies and investors betting on blockchain continues to grow. But how did it come about? What was needed to develop bitcoin, its first practical application? And who were the pioneers of blockchain?

Sex, religion, and politics, along with harmony and trust, gave birth to money. At first, there was barter. Later came coins and bills, which have now given way to the network age, a world in which space and time have disappeared and transactions are conducted in bits. In order to understand the present and predict the future, Chris Skinner reflects on the history of money in his book, 'The Next Step: Exponential Life', which can be downloaded online free of charge as part of BBVA’s OpenMind project.

The BBVA Historical Archive is a private business archive that traces its roots back 160 years, to the bank´s founding in 1857. Located in Bilbao, it houses the basic documentation of the three banks that would later form BBVA: Banco de Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya and Argentaria. During the 19th and most of 20th Century, their geographical context was largely limited to Spain; it was only at the end of the 20th century that BBVA began its international expansion.

Just as they do every summer, the streets of Paris, New York and Madrid prepare to be discovered by visitors and to enliven their imagination. Who hasn´t dreamed at one time or another of strolling through their favorite city two hundred years ago and living its history in first person? There´s no need to go on dreaming. Thanks to the BBVA Collection, we can go around the world and revisit the past.

When the deep crisis of the first half of the 1980s was over, the banking sector had undergone a process of consolidation. After restructuring, the most stable and solvent banks took over those that had not been able to survive the depression. The most important banking groups grew stronger, but had to take even more ambitious and decisive steps to meet the challenges posed by the new European landscape.

The 1973 oil crisis, which arose due to the tensions that led to the Yom Kippur War, set off a global chain reaction that also affected Spain. The increase in commodities prices, and a steady decline in Spain’s economic cycle, led to truly difficult times for the banking sector. The upward trend that had begun in the early 1960s was immediately stopped, and worrisome warning signs began to appear, such as an increase in unemployment and a fall in the value of money.

Franco’s government pushed relentlessly to normalize the financial system after determining that most of the efforts over the last decade to open up the sector had been effective. Progressive liberalization of the system was therefore considered a path to continue following. Among other issues, the administration focused on a change in private banking in 1972.

BBVA’s expansion to the U.S. came after it found success in South America and Mexico. The U.S. was an attractive market from a demographics standpoint, with a growing population, a solid economy - which also happened to be the world’s largest - and a positive banking environment. Also, given the Group’s leadership in Latin America, the U.S. with its large and growing Hispanic population was a natural choice.

The subsequent legal reform that took place in the 1950s and early 1960s bore their fruit in the economy and in the banking sector. In the latter, the biggest banks, especially those from Vizcaya, were stronger thanks to a liberalized panorama that enabled their growth and expansion following two complicated decades in the Franco regime.

Before long, the steps taken in the 1950s to abandon the autarchy that had trapped the Spanish economy began to produce results, prompting technocratic ministers to propose additional measures that would put Spain on the path to further liberalization. The route taken by the dictator would still require time, but during the 1960s, the economy was experiencing moments of positive change. The new legislation would encourage private banks to create specific industrial banks.

The Spanish economy was at a delicate point at the end of the 1950s. Following the civil war, Franco’s dictatorship managed to revive the economy through major intervention and the imposition of a strong autarchy that isolated Spain commercially from the western countries. The economy grew through these severe measures but indicators such as inflation began to be a concern. The time had come to change the rules of the game, at least in part.

Banco de Vizcaya, which was founded in 1901, over four decades after Banco de Bilbao, had had only two top executives up until the 1940s. Like Banco de Bilbao, its major competitor in Vizcaya, the true head of Banco de Vizcaya was its management, and not its Board Chairman.

Until the first years of the 1940s, neither Banco de Bilbao nor Banco de Vizcaya had a permanent chairman. Despite the fact that the former was founded in 1857, and the latter, in 1901, their respective boards of directors had previously been chaired by individual board members in rotating periods of one year.

International Red Cross Day is celebrated each year on May 8 to commemorate the birth of the organization’s founder, Henry Dunant. After witnessing war first-hand, the Geneva businessman wrote a book that inadvertently gave rise the the largest humanitarian aid society in history.

Minister Benjamin’s Banking Law of 1946 further pulled in the already tight reins on the Spanish banking sector. In spite of everything, the two banks from Bilbao managed to grow and to distinguish themselves amongst their national competitors. Even before the greater growth that took place during the 1950s, Banco de Bilbao and Banco de Vizcaya had ended the 1940s in very good health.

Following the urgent measures adopted by Franco’s government to expedite the reconstruction of the economy, the Ministry of Finance redoubled its efforts to strengthen its grip over the banking sector.  On the last day of 1946, a new banking law was passed, outlining the new scenario in which institutions would be required to operate during the next decade.

As Franco’s government endeavored to rebuild the economy of country in shambles, companies started focusing on their own efforts to lay the foundations of their businesses in a new market, marked by much tighter government control and the impossibility of engaging in any sort of foreign commercial activity. As for banks, they faced the daunting task of putting back together the two realities into which the sector had been split during the war.

When Juan Vespucci drew the first complete image of the world, 500 years ago, he could have never imagined that his Mapa Mundi would be flying around the world from a still not very well traced location in North America. 200 artistic treasures from the most prominent collection of Spanish art outside the Iberian Peninsula have travelled from the home of the Hispanic Society of New York, to dress up the walls of the Prado Museum, from April 4th through September 10th.

After the Nationalists victory, Franco’s government had to face numerous problems. Some required a quick solution to lay the foundation for reconstruction as soon as possible. One of the issues that needed to be addressed was the existence of two currencies, the one coined by the winners and the Republican currency. This situation arose as a result of the rebel faction’s decisions made throughout the war.

More than 100 years old, the changes that the building has undergone are a testament to our evolution as a country.

On April 1, 1939, the last war report issued by Franco from Burgos concluded with a statement that read: “the war is over.” A Spain in harrowing shape needed to tackle its social and economic reconstruction process, both for its citizens, for its businesses, and, of course, for a banking industry that had seen its capabilities seriously damaged by the severity of the armed conflict. Spaniards were left facing a 40-year long dictatorship.

On top of the issues that the banking industry as a whole was struggling with as a result of Spain being split in two and the constant shifting of its borders, Banco de Bilbao and Banco de Vizcaya were affected by another player due to their origin: the Basque government. The autonomy achieved during the later stages of the Republic by the Basque region would lead José Antonio Aguirre’s government to make more than a few economic decisions during the conflict.

One of the thorniest consequences for the banking industry of the outbreak of the war and the country’s division into two opposite sides was the inability to carry accurate and reliable accounting records. Already in 1936, after barely six months of conflict, banks were not able to close their accounting books.

“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas”. This is one of the most famous quotes from renowned scientist Marie Curie. IT was, precisely, her interest in the world that led her to become the first woman to ever win a Nobel prize, at a time when women were rarely allowed to pursue University studies, at least in Poland.