BBVA’s strategy in Spain of targeting companies and SMEs has scooped three awards from Global Finance magazine at this year’s edition of its ‘Best Digital Bank Awards’: Most Innovative Bank, Best Mobile Banking App and Best Open Banking Strategy.
Leading magazine Global Finance, which specializes in financial markets and investment banking, has hailed BBVA’s outstanding range of products and services for enterprise customers as the most innovative in Spain. The awards panel, made up of editors of the magazine itself and members of technology consulting firm Infosys, were impressed with the bank’s innovation strategy, which targets further growth in business customers by offering a wide range of digital products and services catering to multiple needs and uses.
Global Finance also held a positive view of the bank’s trailblazing exploration of disruptive technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (now in use in products and services and internal operations). It also liked how the bank has been listening to customers to enhance the design of their banking experience, while beefing up cybersecurity defenses to protect customers against cyber-crime.
The magazine also cited its open banking and integrated finance strategy in Spain through APIs, and singled out the BBVA for Business app as the best mobile banking app in Spain.
BBVA's open banking offering features over 40 financial solutions based on APIs, addressing a broad spectrum of business needs. These solutions help to optimize cash management and enable the integration of banking services into digital platforms, thereby improving user experience and facilitating financial transactions beyond traditional banking channels.
Services include options such as home insurance and mortgage application assessment. In 2023, BBVA introduced two key innovations: the first is a pioneering real-time bank account ownership verification service, which enables companies to confirm bank account ownership within seconds and covers 99 percent of accounts in Spain, helping to reduce errors and combat fraud. The second innovation is the first vehicle finance solution in the Spanish banking sector designed for integration into dealer websites. This solution streamlines the financing process from simulation to contracting during vehicle purchases. A significant portion of BBVA's new customers in Spain in 2023 were first attracted through open banking and financial solutions embedded in third-party channels, as mentioned above.
Global Finance has recognized BBVA's mobile banking app for businesses as a leader in its category, praising its extensive range of products and services, high security standards, and its capacity to address the needs of businesses with high transaction volumes. In 2024, BBVA has further improved the app by enhancing connectivity with sales teams and adding several key new features: Immediate customer service has been enhanced with the ability for managers and salespeople to respond to inquiries almost instantly, improving both response times and service quality. Additionally, the authenticated call feature allows customers to contact their managers directly through the app without requiring extra authentication, increasing the likelihood of resolving issues on first contact. These improvements underscore BBVA's commitment to providing its corporate customers with an exceptional, agile, and secure digital banking experience.