Foreign exchange market

Due to its international presence, BBVA has an exchange rate risk hedging policy which is intended to preserve the Group's capital ratios and provide stability to its results.

Global Finance magazine has recognized BBVA as the Best Foreign Exchange (FX) Provider in Latin America for the third year in a row. The 2019 World’s Best Foreign Exchange Providers awards were presented on November 19 in London. The publication also presented BBVA awards for the best FX services in its franchises in Peru, Argentina and Spain.

The European Central Bank unveiled today the new €100 and €200 notes, which will be introduced in May 28, 2019. These notes complete the Europe series, the second since the introduction of the euro. The new notes, featuring security components that make them harder to counterfeit, are the highest-value denominations after the phase out of the €500 note.

Across BBVA the shift to digital is creating opportunities and ensuring customers and clients get better and better products and services.

The headlines about the U.S. dollar this year have underscored how complicated it is to predict the movement of any one currency in a global economy. They’ve gone from grim (“Dollar set for worst January in 30 years”) to triumphant (“Dollar claws back”) to deflated (“Dollar’s rebound fizzles”) in a matter of weeks.

BBVA Compass assembled a worldly-wise panel in Houston last week to help its Global Markets clients, all of whom maintain assets outside the U.S., sort through the barrage of global economic news to better understand the risks.

As of today, EU banks are required to comply with the new relevant regulatory framework on markets and financial institutions, based on the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, (MiFID II), and its corresponding regulation, MiFIR.

In the last couple of years the Latin American currency trading, FX, market has been in turmoil; after the devaluation of major Latam currencies in 2016, trading volumes have decreased and many of the global banks that used to lead the FX market in the region have left, allowing strong regional players, including BBVA, to step in and increase their market share.

Once again, the Argentine economy faces critical decisions to avoid a new downturn and take the path to more sustainable growth. Markets are keeping a close eye on the post-electoral roadmap outlined by the administration of President Mauricio Macri.

Remittances remain a major, if not the largest, source of foreign revenue for Mexico. In 2016, the dollar volume for remittances to Mexico jumped 8.8% over the prior year and reached an all-time high of nearly $27 billion — about 95% of those remittances came from the U.S. The U.S.-Mexico corridor is one of the largest remittance sectors in the world, and four key influences are helping to further fuel its significant growth.

BBVA and BBVA Bancomer are piloting an FX matching application developed by Calypso Technology, a leading provider of cloud based cross asset trading software solutions for the financial markets, and enterprise software firm R3. The application, which runs on R3’s Corda platform and is facilitated by Calypso’s cloud services, has already been used by the two banks to match a test FX trade.

BBVA has adhered to the Foreign Exchange (FX) Global Code of Conduct, a voluntary code that aims to promote a robust, fair, liquid, open and transparent market in which wholesale market participants can trade securely and effectively at competitive prices that reflect available market information.

On March 25, 1957, representatives from the six founding countries of the European Community put their signatures to the Treaties of Rome, consisting of blank pages due to a problem with the printing. Sixty years on, Europe "is an enormous success", but today it also has "blank pages still to be filled in" for the project to continue with its process of completion. This was the metaphor used by Jose Manuel González-Páramo, the CEO of BBVA, to describe the current situation of the EU.

As we have already seen, the currency market or exchange rate market is a global decentralized market where currencies are traded and which was born to provide coverage to the monetary flows resulting from international trade.

We have already seen what the foreign exchange market is and how it works, as well as different exchange rate systems. Here, we will analyze the broad range of participants that engage in a market that, in average, churns around 5 trillion dollars on a daily basis.

An exchange rate system, also called a currency system, establishes the way in which the exchange rate is determined, i.e., the value of the domestic currency with respect to other currencies. Choosing the currency system is a pivotal element of the economic policy adopted by a country’s government. The currency system has significant repercussions on the flexibility of the exchange rate and on other instruments of economic policy.

The foreign currency or foreign exchange market is a decentralized worldwide market in which currencies are traded. It was created in order to facilitate the flow of money derived from international trade. Today, it is the world's largest financial market, with an average daily volume of about $5 trillion, and is undergoing an important and growing “electronification.”

The recent report, The Business of Financial Inclusion: Insights from Banks in Emerging Markets represents a new endeavor for the Institute of International Finance (IIF). It is based on the insights of 24 executives in charge of financial inclusion, a topic of growing interest.

The trade finance or foreign trade activity accompanies people and businesses in their activity importing/exporting goods and services, mitigating the risks that exist in international commercial relations and simplifying the settlement of operations. The same commercial transaction can require different solutions over time, depending on the moment at which it takes place and the role of the parties involved (importer or exporter).

In 2015, green bond issues totaled 41.3 billion dollars, 15% more than the volume issued in 2014. The main issue currencies are the U.S. dollar and the euro, along with a very small proportion of other currencies which development banks are testing in their capital market development programs. BBVA Global Markets Research estimates that in 2016 these issues will reach at least 50 billion dollars, on a global basis.

Turkey shows the macroeconomic profile of a country in the midst of its financial takeoff, although highly conditioned by its international commercial relationships.

Market downfalls at the beginning of the year have put investors on guard. The sharp decline in oil prices and questions over the Chinese economy leave their mark on the global economic outlook. BBVA Asset Management expects to see moderate growth in the global economy in 2016 but suggests caution when building portfolios due to increased risk. Diversification and hedging are necessary.

Central banks in Latin America are finding it particularly difficult to meet their target of low and stable inflation, since many countries are facing at the same time problems of high inflation (fueled by the depreciation of the exchange rate) and low economic growth.

The Chairman & CEO of BBVA, Francisco González, stressed at the summit in Turkey that authorities should start to wrap up the financial reform agenda to take a breather and analyze its impact on the recovery. “Regulation must focus on growth and not just financial stability,” said Francisco González at the summit, where business leaders share their opinions with politicians on the major challenges facing the global economy.

Since the outbreak of the crisis in 2008, each G20 (Group of 20) summit arouses a great deal of international expectation. The one held in Turkey has been no exception. Antalya not only plays host to the leaders of the 20 most important countries in the world, accounting for 85% of the global economy; also present will be the business leaders of these 20 economies, at the B20 (Business 20)