Ethical Banking

Green is more than a color. In our collective imagination it symbolizes nature and is associated with caring for the environment. We need a green future so the world will continue to be the place we know today and not the foreboding future as depicted by gloomy predictions. BBVA is aware of this and for years has been committed to green and social financing. In fact, it is one of the banks most recognized for its activity in sustainable financing.

BBVA USA pledged today to put nearly $15.5 billion in lending, investments and services toward supporting low- and moderate-income individuals and neighborhoods in the U.S. over the next six years, renewing its 2014 5-year $11 billion commitment to boost economic development across all the communities in its footprint.

Representatives of three leading organizations - Google, Telefónica and BBVA - spoke during the Open Summit event about the different applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the business world and how to extract tangible value from data for people and for society as a whole, at a scale and in a structured way.

BBVA has named the winner of its newly created Open Talent Award for Sustainability as Australian last mile start-up AgUnity.

Calama is a Chilean city known as the gateway to the Atacama desert. A barren place that smells of dust, salt and heat. However, it was the destination chosen by Gladys Chacana to rebuild her inner strength. At 73, this woman has something she would never even dared to dream of: a support network that makes life in this place a bit less arid.

Climate change is forcing countries and the private sector to gaze into the future from a different point of view, one in which technology opens new paths to contribute to the development of societies. This is the scenario based on which the UN has defined its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 9:  Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. BBVA has committed to - and is already - contributing to the achievement of this goal.

At the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) 2019 Global Conference, Garanti BBVA presented their 2018 annual consolidated report, which emphasized how important empathy is to the bank’s corporate culture and how this influences their approach to customers,clients and employees. Sinem Ozonur, BBVA Head of Consolidated Reporting at Garanti BBVA, was the first representative from a Turkish company to take the stage and address some of the more note-worthy topics.

BBVA has a core purpose of bringing the age of opportunity to everyone. The first step toward fulfilling this purpose has to do with the bank’s contribution to attaining the first of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): the end of poverty. The 17 SDGs are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The UN has called on companies to unite their efforts and initiatives in this area, with a focus on public-private partnerships.

In 2016 Garanti Bank teamed up with Bahçeşehir University to launch ‘Code the Future with Garanti’, an educational program designed to make a positive impact on local communities by preparing children for the digital age. Entering its fourth year, the program will hold a series of workshops in seven cities across Turkey. Its first stop: Istanbul.

BBVA Compass today announced that the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta rated it “Outstanding” for CRA performance for its most recent examination period encompassing 2015 to 2017. The bank achieved “excellent performance” for community development lending and investments, and “high satisfactory” for service, which would translate to an overall “Outstanding” rating.

In February 2018, BBVA announced its Pledge 2025, a strategy to fight climate change and promote sustainable development with an ambitious goal of mobilizing €100 billion in sustainable financing by 2025. By the end of February 2021, the bank had already mobilized more than €50.2 billion. However, the institution's commitment to green and social finance predates the formalization of this commitment; in fact, BBVA is one of the most recognized institutions among large companies and clients for its leadership in offering sustainable products.

BBVA Compass last week announced that Celie Niehaus had been named as its Chief Compliance Officer and newest member of the bank’s management committee. Niehaus has a long history in risk management across multiple financial institutions. We took some time to sit down with her to understand how a largely regulatory function like compliance could contribute to the digital aspirations of a financial institution. As it turns out, compliance, just like banking, is itself in a state of evolution. To find out more, read on.

Along with the promise it bears, artificial intelligence also brings with it a number of risks that need to be kept in mind and addressed. What measures are data scientists taking to avoid information fed to machines from being incomplete or biased?

As flagged in the announcement of its strategy for climate change and sustainable development in its contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, BBVA has unveiled its framework for the issue of SDG-linked sustainable bonds.

The U.S. Congress got a step closer to improving access to mainstream financial services for the underserved and unbanked with the inclusion of the MOBILE Act (H.R. 1457) as part of an amendment to the banking regulatory relief bill that was reported out of the Senate Banking Committee last week, and the standalone bill reported out (by 60-0 vote) of the House Financial Services Committee this week.

The winners have been announced of the eleventh annual Turkey’s Women Entrepreneurs Competition, organized by the Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Turkey (KAGIDER), Garanti Bank and Ekonomist Magazine. The first prizewinners in four categories were announced at the award ceremony held on Tuesday, November 28.

For the banking industry, the digital revolution has brought new technologies and new types of customers and competitors. But it has also created a new set of ethical responsibilities regarding cybersecurity and the use of data. José Manuel González-Páramo, BBVA’s Executive Director, talked about those ethics, and the opportunities and challenges of digitization, during a speech at the Atrium of the Gentiles, a cultural dialogue organized by the engineering school ICADE and the Ecumenical Social Forum of Madrid. He said these ethics will require acting from a triple perspective: educational, business and regulatory

BBVA has joined a group of 14 banks that have made a commitment to the United Nations Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) to implement the recommendations on financing and climate change published by the Financial Stability Board in July in the framework of the G20.

Halfway into its five-year, $11 billion commitment to serving low- to moderate-income communities, BBVA Compass has made tens of thousands of pinpoint investments and loans that have changed lives and created opportunities.

Garanti Bank signed a residential mortgage covered bond agreement with IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank Group, with 5-year term maturity worth at USD 150 million equivalent to 540 million Turkish Lira. Garanti issued the first residential mortgage covered bond ever, which is IFC has invested the first time in Turkey as well. Garanti will use the fund to provide green mortgages for the purchases of energy efficient housing, helping to boost the development of green buildings in the country’s housing sector.

BBVA’s Head of Legal & Compliance Eduardo Arbizu, said this Wednesday that “in the field of compliance, digitization offers very significant opportunities”. He highlighted the importance of an organization’s culture in minimizing conduct risk, indicating that it “really is what makes a difference.”

There has been an increasing focus on sustainable finance and on the impact of the climate change for the financial stability since 2015 year. Having said that, sustainable finance and the analysis of the consequences of climate change for the financial system are still in a very nascent stage and there is still a lot of work to be done. Two leading projects that are a step in the right direction are those of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Recommendations -at global level- and the creation of a European Expert Group on sustainable finance -in the EU.

Ethics has always been a key debate topic within the financial system. And it still is in the current era of digital disruption that has engulfed a sector that is pivotal for the economy. But, can the banking industry stay up to date with the new frantic pace of innovation and still operate following a series of ethical principles?

In José Manuel González-Páramo’s opinion, in the context of change unleashed by new technologies, the financial sector needs to keep ethics at the core of its banking activity. According to BBVA’s executive director, in the new digital era, banks need start considering confidence as a top priority, and data privacy and cybersecurity as the two pillars on which this confidence is built.

After the financial crisis of 2008, the role that banks need to play in society seems to have been finally clarified. The purpose - or the rationale - of a bank is currently defined in terms of service to citizens, the community or the specific groups with which it interacts (stakeholders).  In this new business model, principles are integrated into the bank's strategy and grant consistency and unity to three fundamental concepts:  the purpose, the strategy and the corporate culture.  Today in the banking industry, the talk is not about what we want to be but how to become what we want to be. In other words: how to build a responsible culture.

Political events have been to the fore in 2016, and discussions at yesterday’s "Challenges for the Future of Banking"  (CFB) event, hosted by the IESE Navarra Business School in London*, reflected this. Commenting on the rumored bonfire of U.S. banking regulations by the incoming Trump administration, one speaker said: “I don’t want the Volcker Act (which prohibits American banks from trading on their own behalf) repealed - the re-organization would be too disruptive.”

In his address during the Institute of International Finance’s Spring Meeting in Madrid, BBVA Executive Chairman Francisco González stressed that opening the technological platforms to collaboration with startups and a progressive cloud migration will be critical to the future of the banking sector.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila said today that the sustainability of the banking business model in the current context of negative interest rates requires a change: To leave behind a money-centric infrastructure, based on revenues generated by interests, and develop a banking model that seeks to make a bigger difference in customers' lives. Speaking during BBVA’s Q1 2016 results presentation, Carlos Torres Vila expressed his conviction that “the more we are capable of offering a distinctive value, the more satisfied customers will be and the more viable and sustainable our business model will be.”

Óscar Cabrera has worked for the BBVA Group since 1998 and for the past eight years has been the head of BBVA Colombia. Madrileño by birth and Colombian by adoption, he feels that finally achieving peace is one of the country’s greatest challenges.

Excerpt of the article published by Eduardo Arbizu, Head of Legal & Compliance at BBVA, in the Economic Studies Bulletin (“Boletín de Estudios Económicos”)  where he defends corporate culture (understood as formulating and putting into practice a series of values) as an essential component to ensure the proper functioning of the financial system from an ethical standpoint.