Behavioural sciences

BBVA has relied on behavioral economics techniques to encourage employee participation in cybercrime training. The messages conveyed through the use of these techniques have effectively doubled interest in the course and, in some cases, increased course attendance by up to 70%. The initiative, which has been recognized by the Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists, will succeed in making the bank’s regular cybersecurity messages to its customers more effective.

We tested OpenAI’s GPT-3 (one of the largest Artificial Intelligence (AI) language models ever created) on ten Spanish customer conversations about banking. Without any previous customization, re-training or transfer learning whatsoever, we asked it to generate summaries that would be useful to any bank agent who joins (or retakes) the conversation.

A BBVA Research study leverages big data technology to monitor worldwide media treatment of COVID-19. Analyzing more than 80,000 online news publications in more than 100 languages, the study concludes that both the extent of news coverage and its sentiment provides valuable information about the pandemic's development and the degree to which it impacts the economy and politics. Furthermore, a correlation between increased number of infections and ‘media stress’ has been observed.

Everyone leaves a online footprint that could be easy to find, simply from being a member of a digital society. But by being aware of one’s footprint and learning how to control it, cyber criminals will have a much harder time finding possible victims. Here is some advice to do so.

Data available in physical format represent an important source of information for cybercriminals - things like passwords written on paper or cards, as well as information susceptible to theft that moves through social networks and computers. Here are some of the different social engineering techniques designed to extract information available in non-digital format.

Internet shopping is more and more common: grocery shopping, movie tickets, airline travel, and more. Shopping online has become habitual day-to-day practice, though occasionally potential buyers leave themselves open to fraud or data theft. The following cybersecurity tips serve to reduce the risks associated with card payments on the Internet.

Behavioral economics, the study of human behavior regarding decision making, is the latest field of study BBVA is using to improve customer experience and simplify banking for its customers.

Decision making can be psychologically, emotionally and sometimes even physically exhausting. That’s why all of us have created mental shortcuts, biases, and preferences that help us make decisions. While this can save us time and fatigue, it doesn’t always help us make the best decisions.

We humans have a history of finding faster, simpler, more efficient ways of doing things. Over time, we’ve sped up every process from building a car to ordering a pizza online.  So it’s really no surprise that we’ve also established thought processes to help us wade through all the information we encounter and make decisions more quickly.

Every day, we ask our brains to make decisions, about what to wear, what to order, which shoes to buy, which route to take to work. Some of these decisions are made so automatically, we aren’t even aware we’re making them. Our brains do that on purpose -- relying on shortcuts and preferences -- to avoid the continuous ongoing stress of making the same decisions again and again.

To trust or not to trust? This is the question that will redefine success in the digital age. Atom Bank, the first mobile bank in the United Kingdom has been called on to analyze the driving factor behind this new challenge, thanks to an agreement that secures their participation in a three-year project with Newcastle University. BBVA owns a 39 percent stake in Atom Bank.

Social engineering, which is nothing more than psychologically manipulating victims to provide the information that cyber-criminals need to make illegitimate access to their computers, has become the protagonist of a long list of cyber-attacks.

Last week BBVA announced that AI-based personal money manager startup Change had won its Open Talent Global award for best fintech idea. Change, an Israeli outfit that works in the U.S. and Canada, uses artificial intelligence to help customers keep track of their money, giving them a nudge via an SMS when they are overspending.

BBVA’s Group Executive Chairman said that developing the best banking application in the world (according to Forrester) has been a work that “has taken many years.” To get to this point, Francisco González underscored that “the most important thing was when we adopted ‘agile’ work methodologies that allow us to deliver upgrades every three months.” The application helps customers make better financial decisions and manage their financial lives better. Ultimately, he stated, we “want to be the best adviser of our customers.”

The financial sector has undergone tremendous change in the past few years thanks to the adoption of emerging technologies such as the smartphone.

Under 30, entrepreneurs and digital. This are the common traits that define the young Europeans chosen by Forbes magazine in its '30 Under 30' list. A mobile navigation aide for the visually impaired, a meal kit delivery platform, a t-shirt that allows users to peek inside the human body, a nightlife finder in London... Many tech-related projects that deserve special attention.  Here we take a look at a few of them.

Machines are getting smarter: trading trillions of dollars in stocks around the world, driving cars, performing surgical operations (570,000 last year), managing and running entire hotels, making cocktails on cruise ships in the Caribbean… truly, we are living in the age of the machine.

BBVA’s Global Head of Customer Solutions, Derek White, explained this morning that “It’s not longer about products, but about helping customers with their financial lives.” White participated in MoneyConf’s panel “Competition makes you smarter: Customer Centric banking,” where he exchanged ideas with Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana and moderator Andrea Rexer, finance editor at Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Francisco González, Group Executive Chairman of BBVA, presented the book The Next Step: Exponential Life in an event held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  This work collects the insights of twenty of the world’s most authoritative voices in a number of fields, analyzing the tremendous opportunities – and the risks and uncertainties – that the so-called “exponential technologies” will bring to humanity

Respected Spanish scientist Juan Ignacio Cirac believes that quantum computing could be a reality in 10 year's time. A super machine capable of performing calculations at breakneck speeds that will open uncharted territories in matters such as encryption.

Apple, Google, Microsoft are Samsung are just one of the most obvious names that spring to mind when speaking about innovation. However, other companies are proving that innovation is not the exclusive hunting ground of the big guns of the digital economy.

The UN has declared February 11th the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to promote female scientists and engage women in engineering, research, mathematics and technology. In celebration of this day, BBVA explains its passion for numbers in hopes of inspiring new generations.

Of the 1,586 craters in the Moon named after scientists, only 28 of them have been named after a woman. A revealing figure to kick off the Women in Data Science (WiDS) event in Madrid, organized by Stanford University to promote women’s work in a new field that is disrupting industries across the world.

People interact with computers and electronic devices as a matter of course, but perceptual intelligence wants to go beyond that. The aim is for machines to perceive what human beings do around them, helping people make decisions or anticipating their needs.

User experience (UX) has become one of the keys to success in the digital economy. Design is pivotal, but on its own will not be enough to win the heart of those that download an app or visit a website.

Every January, Las Vegas becomes the tech capital of the world. Once again, this year the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, touched down on the gambling mecca to kick off the technology season.

2016 have brought a quantum leap for society in the adoption of new technologies. Slowly but surely biometrics, virtual reality, domotics and cryptocurrencies are making inroads in consumers' daily activities, and many of the advances predicted in "Back to the future" are now a reality. What's in store in 2017?

How should machines learn to make the most out of the data they handle? Based on how scientists answer this question, they can be grouped into five tribes. They all see themselves capable of finding a master algorithm capable of discovering knowledge from data, with huge implications for everything we do.

Have you ever stopped to think about all the data you generate throughout the day? It was the possibility of actually making use of all this data through numerous apps, records and data bases that gave rise to Big Data.

The possibility of obtaining more efficient algorithms than people is not science fiction. It’s an area of work that has recently been making major progress and is now being applied to the financial industry, as confirmed at the roundtable on artificial intelligence and machine learning at the last IIF Spring Meeting’s, held in Madrid and sponsored by BBVA.