Applications for BBVA Open Talent 2019 — the biggest fintech startup competition in the world — are open until 5 July 2019.

The company, in which BBVA invested in 2018, was named best startup in growth stage at the Fintech Germany awards.

An exceptional user experience and value added features are the keys to differentiating a banking application from its competition. These are the elements that held the most sway when, for the second consecutive year, the consulting firm Forrester chose BBVA's app as the best banking app in the world and gave the Garanti BBVA app in Turkey the best in user experience.

In just three years from inception, German 'startup' solarisBank has become one of the hottest 'fintech' startups. BBVA has been backing the company since 2018.

BBVA has been honoured with three accolades in the 2019 edition of Global Finance Magazine’s The Innovators Awards.

"Hello! Finally, we meet! I have been specifically designed to help you better understand the ins and outs of your daily finances.  I am always available and crunching the numbers is one of my favorite tasks."

This could be the start of a friendship, a virtual friendship, because the virtual assistant is a “bot” enabled in BBVA’s app whose express mission is to better control customer finances. “We call it a  'pseudo-bot’ ... initially resembling conversational interfaces,” explains Sergio Ruiz Navarro, who is responsible for the design/UX of this endearing creature whose mission is to understand if customers do a good job (or not) of managing their money.