BBVA's Teppo Paavola and Derek White join The Digital Banking Club's 'Power 50'
BBVA’s Digital Transformation program received a vote of approval from its peers when Teppo Paavola, Head of New Digital Business, was named 'Personality of the Year' in The Digital Banking Club (TDBC) Power 50 - nominated by the TDBC’s 8,000 - plus members from across European financial services. Teppo was joined in the Power 50 - described as the 'The Who’s Who of European Digital Banking' - by Derek White, BBVA's Global Head of Customer Solutions.
Paavola said: “ I’m delighted for the bank and in particular the New Digital Business team - the initiatives in the citation make it very clear that this honour is down to them.”
Each year, TDBC members - made up of leading financial services businesses - nominate individuals to the Power 50. A panel then turn the hundreds of nominations into the final list. TDBC is a joint initiative between software company Intelligent Environments and the title Retail Banker International, and the full Power 50 list can be viewed here.
The 2016 panel featured leading fintech figures such as Chris Skinner (‘The Finanser’) and Pacemakers’ founder Alessandro Hatami.
BBVA's Teppo Paavola receives his award from Intelligent Environments' David Webber at an event at London's Law Society (photo: Jack Dupree, Video2Web)
According to Douglas Blakey, Editor of Retail Banker International, Teppo was a straightforward choice for Personality of the Year. ‘Teppo was a runaway winner and a thoroughly well-deserved recipient - his business unit had quite a year’, he said.
There were a number of factors cited for the award, including ‘a class-leading Banking as a Service business through BBVA’s Open API programme’, investments such as Atom and the creation of Propel Venture Partners.
Commenting on his inclusion in the Power 50, White said: “This award is a tribute to the entire bank and my colleagues' ongoing work on Digital Transformation .”
Earlier this year, BBVA was chosen as best Digital Bank in Latin America and North America by Euromoney magazine.