BBVA’s digital channels keep on growing

More than a quarter of all new Spanish customers now start their relationship with BBVA through an online platform, with the number having steadily increased over the past two years.

In Spain, over half of those joining via digital now also take advantage of the bank’s seamless online mobile onboarding system to become customers, with rest  joining via web.

BBVA’s online onboarding system allows people to open an account via web or app-based platforms. The process consists of document verification to confirm the prospective customer’s identity, followed by biometric authentication using a photograph and video.

Group wise the figure is also growing steadily, with more than 18% of new customers now choosing to join the bank via a digital channel.

In the U.S. the figure is even higher at 38%, demonstrating the focus the U.S. operations have on digital banking.

Visits’ increase

BBVA has also now released a new statistic related to the way BBVA’s customer interact with the bank through its digital channels. For example, in Spain the number of ‘visits’ to the bank’s award winning app has almost doubled in just two years, while the number of customers using PC web access has remained largely the same, as have ATM visits.

In fact, across the Group - when it comes to digital channels - more than 57% of customers now only use the bank's app to check in on their accounts, with a further 15.5% mainly using the app, and only 10% now just using standard web access.

“People are staying longer on the platform, doing more and understanding their finances better"

For digital leaders Turkey and Garanti customers, that figure leaps to just short of 70% for only mobile app access, and just 5.9% only web.

Another interesting statistic shows that traffic to the banks digital channels peaks on both Mondays and Fridays, with almost twice as many visits on those days than at the weekends.

Derek White, Global Head of Client Solutions, said: “BBVA has been working hard to ensure its banking app - which is being rolled out across the group as part of our focus on shifting to global product deployment - is the best in the business.

“What we are increasingly seeing is that not only are people staying longer on the platform, doing more, understanding their finances better, but that it is also the jump-off point for people’s relationships with us.

“And when it comes to checking things like balance, it is really interesting to see the patterns involved - with people perhaps checking on Fridays how much money they have to spend at the weekends, and then double checking on the monday just how much they have spent!”

White added that as BBVA pushes harder to make the insights available on its platform more and more personal and specific to the customer he expects these statistics to keep on growing.

He added: “The value the app is bringing is not just about letting people bank when, where and how they want, but increasingly it’s about saving them money, time and reducing their stress. What’s great about the global nature of the way we design and deploy products now, is that this same level of service is something we can bring to all our customers because the same challenges affect everyone.”