International finance

International guarantees, also known as “bank guarantees,” “guarantee bonds,” or “standby letters of credit,” are a key tool for companies that operate internationally, as they ensure that economic obligations will be properly performed. Under this instrument, the guarantor expresses a willingness to fulfill the commitments of the principal obligor facing a third party if the principal fails to do so.

BBVA is rolling out its innovative Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) product line for investors in South America, focused on the design, manufacture and distribution of investment strategies that materialize in proprietary indices. In March, Peru will become the first country to incorporate these innovative strategies into local investment products. Colombia and Chile will follow.

BBVA has supported PreZero Group in the structuring and arrangement of a term loan to finance its sustainable business activities.  The company approached BBVA due to its global vision and strategy towards sustainability.

For the tenth consecutive year, Garanti BBVA was presented the award for the Best Trade Finance Bank by Global Finance magazine. This award confirms yet again Garanti BBVA’s experience and leadership offering its clients unique solutions in the trade finance field.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Swiss private banking sector has turned out for Private Banking & Wealth Management: Switzerland 2019, the leading industry conference and award ceremony that will bring together more than 250 banking executives, technology vendors, and specialists in other financial services. BBVA is one of the sponsors of this year’s event.

Mario Draghi reiterated this week that the ECB could tentatively delay the planned rate hike until next year. At a conference in Frankfurt, Draghi responded to banks’ concerns by saying negative rates could impact bank profitability, although it “is not an inevitable consequence.” Given these statements, we asked Olga Gouveia, Lead Economist for Financial Systems at BBVA Research, what is the impact of the decision to keep negative interest rates. In her opinion, it is reasonable the precautionary tone of the ECB, provided that there is a planned hike on the horizon.

We recently caught up with serial entrepreneur Joaquín Ayuso de Paul, CEO and founder of Denizen - a fintech company incubated in BBVA's New Digital Businesses unit. Denizen has created the first truly global bank account for expats.

International trade plays an essential role in our everyday lives: in both developed countries and emerging markets, a large part of the products and services result — either partially or totally — from commercial dealings with other countries.

In a scenario of political and economic uncertainties and amid external shocks mainly caused by U.S. protectionism and China, the recovery of the Latin American economy continues apace, with growth expected to gradually accelerate and reach a forecast 2.1 percent in 2019 (Source: BBVA Research).

Alexis Thompson, Head of Global Securities Services at BBVA, explains what the securities services business within the investment banking sector consists of, what clients expect and what tasks it carries out.

Emerging economies were amongst the topics addressed at the Institute of International Finance’s (IIF) spring meeting, held in Brussels last week. This BBVA-sponsored event convened financial institutions, regulators and public bodies to debate some of the industry’s most pressing issues, including the economic and political outlook, regulation and fintech.

Of the tax revenue paid by Europeans, only one euro per taxpayer is used to finance the EU's budget. In total, the EU manages a budget of about 1% of the gross national income of its member states. Nonetheless, how this money is invested directly impacts Europeans’ lives; it is therefore of interest to understand the EU budget as of 2021, the first spending plan after the UK's exit from the EU.

The way large corporations and institutional entities manage their finances has changed dramatically over the last decade and transaction banking has played a very important role in this transformation, as a result of both the boost given to the activity and the improvement of the relationship model with customers. The transformation was also affected by the recent financial crisis and has been enabled, to a large extent, by the use of new technologies.

What is transaction banking? It is the side of banking that addresses the operational needs and day-to-day transactions of business, corporate and institutional customers. It also provides cash management services where the short-term management of a company’s liquidity is a key, using instruments and services designed for the management of incoming and outgoing cash flows, international commerce, and asset management.

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.

The European Union’s banking and medicine agencies are moving. This is one of the direct consequences of the United Kingdom’s approaching departure from the European Union (Brexit). On Monday, November 20th, the 27 member states will vote on which European cities will be the new home of these two agencies.

Money 20/20 Las Vegas is without doubt one of the showcase events for technology and financial services in the world. Every years thousands of people involved in the industry, from big banks like BBVA to technology firms like Google and most importantly innovators and start-ups, gather to discuss the future of the industry.

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.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that oversees the proper running of the financial system by promoting oversight and regulatory policies.

The R3 consortium is working with 12 financial institutions –including BBVA– and TradeIX in an initiative that aims to re-design the trade finance infrastructure through the use of distributed ledger technology, or DLT.

The CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) credential is the most complete and recognized credential in the world of investment and finance. There are more than 500 CFAs in Spain, but, what are the requirements to become a CFA?

The EBA recently completed its latest monitoring exercise to assess EU Banks’ capital, leverage, and liquidity ratios assuming full implementation of the CRD IV-CRR/Basel III framework.  Overall, the results show that, between June and December of 2016, there was an improvement in both CET1 capital and liquidity ratios.

For months, European authorities have been mulling over a crucial issue for the health of the financial sector: reducing the stock of non-performing assets that have been piling up in banks’ balance sheets during the years of financial crisis.  The creation of a bad European bank is one of the alternatives that are being considered to solve the problem.

BBVA has participated in a public hearing in the European Parliament, organized by the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI). The aim of the hearing was to allow stakeholders to share their insights into the directive’s insolvency proposal with the MEPs. BBVA was the only representative of the financial sector, a fact that attests to the bank’s relevance for EU institutions on these matters.

Once more this year, the symposium of the most important central bankers in the world was held in Jackson Hole from August 24 to 26. Under scrutiny were Janet Yellen, the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank. Their words gave no indications of any changes with respect to the future of monetary policy.

BBVA is one of 11 banking institutions that are collaborating on the development of the Voltron project, a platform based on DLT (distributed ledger technology) that puts exporters and importers in contact, in order to improve efficiency in trade finance.

The role the European Central Bank played during the crisis was fundamental to the European economy getting off the ground, according to José Manuel González-Páramo. He experienced part of this process firsthand as a member of the ECB Executive Board and Governing Council from 2004 to 2012. He is currently BBVA’s Executive Director.

The digital transformation of financial services is expanding the concept and business of shadow banking — broadly defined as “credit intermediation involving entities and activities (fully or partially) outside the regular banking system”—, according to the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the international body that monitors the stability of the global financial system.