BBVA Bancomer, the most innovative bank in Latin America, according to Global Finance
BBVA Bancomer has been crowned as the most innovative bank in Latin America in this year’s edition of British publication Global Finance's The Innovators 2018 awards, which recognize the institutions that systematically identify new businesses and design new financial tools. With this award, the magazine acknowledges the institution’s value proposal, which includes a customer-centric data-based user-friendly design, developed in collaboration with the fintech ecosystem.
In its sixth edition of The Innovators awards, Global Finance recognized BBVA Bancomer as ‘Most Innovative Bank in Latin America'. The purpose of these awards is to recognize those organizations that promote and support creative thinking, that are capable of developing it and turn it into viable solutions for their customers. These accolades have become a recognized seal of excellence among Global Finance’s readership –50,000 in the 192 countries where it's distributed– and in the global financial community.
Hugo Nájera Alva, Global Head of Business Development at BBVA Bancomer noted that “innovation is the keystone of digital transformation, which today is ingrained in the bank’s DNA and drives us to develop products and services with a solid value proposal that is built on four pillars: design, data, mobility and openness. These four attributes allow us to build complete experiences that cater to the specific needs of our customers, through the digitization of traditional bank services and the creation of native solutions in digital channels.”
Hugo Nájera Alva, Global Head of Business Development at BBVA Bancomer.
"Digital transformation is ingrained in the bank’s DNA and drives us to develop products and services with a solid value proposal"
Nájera noted that being recognized as the most innovative bank in Latin America by Global Finance also challenges the institution to keep working on a digital transformation that begun when nobody else in the Mexican financial system was even considering it. BBVA Bancomer pursued this leadership because it understood that it needed to take on the challenge of driving technological innovation to make it part of its processes and support decision making workflows.
The executive explained that BBVA Bancomer’s digital transformation forward-looking vision has led to a series of changes in the financial regulatory framework aimed at embracing the new digital models that have helped establish Mexico as one of the regions digital banking leaders. “Without a doubt, the Fintech law is one of the best things to happen to this country in recent years, because it will open the doors of the financial system to a new generation of Mexican entrepreneurs, boost technological innovation in banking and foster competition among the different players in the financial industry”, he said.
"BBVA Bancomer’s digital transformation forward-looking vision has led to a series of changes in the financial regulatory framework"
A digital transformation at the service of the customer
BBVA’s digital transformation started years ago and today is present in each and every aspect of the Group’s relationships with its customers, from service to security and know-your-customer processes, and has defined user experience as its key factor.
BBVA recently unveiled in Mexico the first global mobile banking platform, which unifies user experience across all countries, with a unique design and navigation logic that adapts to meet the financial needs of the customers in each country. This platform improves efficiency thanks to the recycling of components, which allows undercutting delivery times in the markets.
New work methodologies to drive digital transformation
BBVA’s transformation has also rippled across its work methods, abandoning traditional project management practices to adopt an agile methodology that empowers multidisciplinary teams to autonomously and collaboratively deliver quick results on an ongoing basis.
BBVA Bancomer already has a broad portfolio of digital products for customers and non-customers, developed with this methodology, including BBVA Send, Apartados (an app that allows users to set aside money from their savings account to make payments), BBVA Wallet, Digital Account, Multipayments, CheckUp and BBVA Plan. As of the first quarter of 2018, the bank had 5.7 million digital customers. According to estimates, this digital customer base will reach 6.5 million by year-end, bearing witness to how strongly innovation is bursting into users’ financial decisions.