Social affairs

BBVA in Colombia granted 3.8 billion pesos in sustainable lending between January and August 2023, with $2.4 billion going to inclusive growth projects and $1.4 billion for climate action pursuits. These figures are already up on last year’s total figure and 66% higher than in August 2022.

BBVA in Colombia and Bancamía, an entity of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation, have announced that the Transforming Realities Scholarship will widen its scope and, starting this year, will support 100 vulnerable young people in the country so that they can pursue university studies. This initiative benefits the children of Bancamía's micro-business customers throughout the country. In its three previous editions, it has benefited 21 young people from different departments of Colombia.

The bank organized a variety of different volunteer programs in December in every country where it has a presence. Over 1,100 volunteers participated in 36 charitable activities, which primarily entailed collecting food and toys and supporting underprivileged groups.

After 15 years of supporting female entrepreneurship and the participation of women in the business world, Garanti BBVA has once again collaborated with  KAGİDER at the Meeting of Women Entrepreneurs.

In order to help alleviate the effects of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable, BBVA will make a charitable contribution in Spain in replacement of the traditional gift given to shareholders for the Annual General Meeting. It will be the shareholders who vote on which of four causes they prefer for the donation from this gift: social inclusion, education, health and people with disabilities.

BBVA’s Diversity and Inclusion program has developed a pilot project to help female employees advance in their careers. Through a dynamic known as “speed networking”, a group of female employees was able to expand their network of contacts at the bank and interact with a variety of different people with extensive experience and responsibility at the bank. This activity is part of BBVA’s plan to bridge the gender gap and break any possible glass ceilings that could get in the way of its female employees’ careers.

The Madrid Metro celebrated its 100th anniversary, bringing its one million daily passengers closer to the Spanish capital in a quick and sustainable manner. BBVA is especially pleased to join the centennial anniversary of its opening, made possible thanks to the financial support provided by the Banco de Vizcaya despite investors’ suspicion of this novel and pioneering form of transportation.

Ízaro Amilibia, discipline manager at BBVA’s Talent and Culture area, attended the LGBTI Atlantic Conference held in Bilbao to explain the bank’s initiatives in this area. The event gathered activists and experts from across the world to discuss the international reality of this community. Supporting LGTBI people is one of the pillars of BBVA's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

One would think that a good financial education, in and of itself, would be enough to properly plan for retirement. However, research conducted by the Mexican Association of Pension Fund Managers (AMAFORE) and supervised by Jean Paul Madrigal, reveals something more is needed. The BBVA Center for Education and Financial Capabilities awarded this retirement planning research project one of its inaugural BBVA EduFin Research Grants.

"Be Yourself" is the recommendation BBVA employees have made to encourage workplace diversity. These are the first steps of an initiative that the working group – with a show of support from the bank's management – presented to the rest of the bank employees. The event also included a group of speakers who addressed the challenges and difficulties faced by LGBTI individuals. It was a day to celebrate, but also to remember that it is it is up to everyone to create a diverse and inclusive work environment.

The foundation, Inspiring Girls, and BBVA organized a stirring event where Tilly Lockey, the girl with bionic arms, and Gema Hassen-Bey a Paralympic fencing medalist, shared their personal testimonies of achievement and strength. The overarching message to the well-attended audience comprised mostly of girls and young people was: you can go wherever you want with conviction and effort.

June 28 is International LGBTI Pride Day. On this day, people around the world gather to celebrate the fight for equal rights and equal treatment for all individuals, regardless of their biological sex, their orientation, their sexual identity or their gender role. BBVA has joined the cause, illuminating for the first time its landmark La Vela high-rise, in its corporate headquarters in Madrid with the colors of the Pride flag. A symbolic gesture that the company is making while launching a campaign to raise awareness among its employees about LGBTI diversity at the workplace.

Ízaro Amilibia, discipline manager in BBVA Spain’s Talent and Culture Department, participated in a round table at an event addressing "Visible and Empowered Women in Business", organized by the Business Network for Diversity and LGBTI Inclusion (known by its Spanish initials, REDI). In the event that coincided with Lesbian Visibility Day, Amilibia stressed the importance of "breaking invisible obstacles" to ensure everyone is visible and embraced by the organization. As part of its commitment to diversity, and specifically to the LGTBI community, BBVA regularly collaborates with REDI.

Diversity and inclusion have become the keystones around which BBVA structures its response towards the equality and wellbeing of its employees. One of the focal points of Talent and Culture’s policies is tearing down the barriers preventing greater diversity in positions of responsibility. That is why work-life balance emerges as a priority issue to attract and retain talent within the organization.

Nowadays, more and more companies are committed to policies that encourage diversity in their work environments. In a panel at an ICMA Women’s Network event, held in Madrid, a group of women in leadership positions in various sectors of the industry debated issues such as unconscious biases in the workplace and the challenges they have had to face throughout their professional lives.

BBVA Compass has put its innovative design thinking methodology to work, solving a real-world problem outside its own four walls. Using a common refrain among those who provide response and relief to disasters: all disasters are local. But the increase in the incidence of natural disasters worldwide since the 1970s has made it increasingly difficult for local communities to handle disaster response on their own.

A major tragedy was the unlikely source of an important friendship. Rick Falcón, BBVA Compass employee never thought he’d end up in Florida.

BBVA Compass clients and Dallas community leaders gathered downtown Thursday night at Café Momentum, where the former juvenile offenders who power the restaurant prepared and served attendees a haute-cuisine meal and gave them a firsthand look at social entrepreneur Chad Houser’s ambitious venture to rehabilitate the youth and help them reenter society.

BBVA Compass and Opportunity Finance Network are putting out the call to dedicated leaders at community development financial institutions and inviting them to apply to the Opportunity Fellows Program, their joint initiative to boost the CDFI industry’s leadership ranks and spur greater access to capital in under-resourced communities.

On Sunday March 4, the global capital of the film industry will once again don formal dress to announce its highest honors. During the ceremony, celebrities will attend a number of parties but without a doubt, one of the most popular and long-awaited will be the charity dinner hosted by Elton John each year to collect funds for his foundation. This year, the Roca brothers, the celebrated restaurateurs of Girona, will be in charge of the preparing a special menu for the occasion - a menu not just for the stars, but for a good cause.

Sustainable Development is essential to achieving more peaceful and just societies and the United Nations counts on the private sector to help in this effort. The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) has contributed its experience in the finance sector to the report entitled “Business and SDG 16: contributing to peaceful, just and inclusive societies,” drawn up by the Sustainable Development Goals Fund and the University of Pennsylvania.

Campus BBVA is the BBVA Group’s corporate university. It’s a training center where the bank offers all its employees the content, platforms and tools they will need to learn about during the course of their professional careers.

Creating Opportunities is BBVA Compass’ mission and brand promise. The person tasked with leading the team that brings that brand to life through multiple channels was honored this past week by the marketing leadership community organization, The CMO Club.

BBVA Compass received a perfect score of 100 percent on the 2018 Corporate Equality Index, a measure of workplace equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees that serves as a benchmark for some of the country’s largest and most influential workplaces.

BBVA Compass and the Houston Dynamo wrapped up their joint campaign to raise money for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts with a series of community events that ended when the Dynamo took the pitch at BBVA Compass Stadium for the Ninth Annual BBVA Compass Dynamo Charities Cup.

BBVA is the Spanish bank with the greatest capacity to attract and retain talent, according to the results of the 12th edition of the Merco Talento study. The 2017 ranking, which is led by clothing retailer Inditex, lists the 100 best companies to work for in Spain.

In the month since Harvey hit Houston, BBVA Compass has published a series of articles to help its customers and the public at large understand the city's new reality, how to move forward, and how the bank will be there to provide support.

BBVA Executive Chairman Francisco González has reinforced the Group’s commitment to the U.S. after the most recent natural disasters. “We’re going to redouble our commitment to those affected through a number of actions,” he explained. In Houston, where he met with the city’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, he gave a message of solidarity on behalf of the entire BBVA Group. Francisco González also announced that he is going to visit Mexico City in the coming days to see first-hand the damages caused by the Sept. 19 earthquake.

Dreamers are individuals who were brought to the United States before the age of 16 and who don’t have lawful immigration status.  They’re pursuing the American dream. They came to the United States as children and many of them discovered as adolescents that they had entered the country without documents. They’re the “dreamers” - immigrants and, most of them children of immigrants who are trying to escape from their legal limbo.