For yet another year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published the data reported by nearly 40 of the largest foundations in member countries of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), to showcase the impact of private philanthropy. For second year running, the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) ranks as the leading contributor to development in Latin America, and the world's second, next to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

45 minutes by motorcycle, half an hour by boat and 15 minutes on foot. That is how Sergio Pacheco and Victor Madera, loan officers of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation in Colombia, manage to bring financial services where no one else does. This journey is just one example among the numerous cases that can be found in the countries where the Foundation works. These are the lengths to which they go to reach those who live outside the financial system, which is another barrier to their progress. In 2020, BBVAMF has banked nearly 300,000 people in Colombia and Peru, and its two institutions combined have reached more than 2.1 million clients.

The 9th of August is the day the United Nations honors the indigenous people for their efforts in protecting biodiversity and a millenium-old culture. They comprise 6% of the world’s population but their territory houses 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. Indigenous communities possess valuable knowledge on how to preserve the environment and care for natural resources. However, they face challenges that put their survival at risk, such as the lack of basic services like health -especially during the COVID-19 pandemic- or access to finance. Among other obstacles that hinder their progress is the lack of infrastructure, but the language barrier is also significant.

To know that they help improve people’s lives is what encourages Roberta, Fernanda, Omar, Yuriem and Teresa to face the day. As part of more than 4,000 microfinance officers of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) in five Latin American countries, they reach places where others don’t go, to make financial services more accessible to low-income entrepreneurs who need only an opportunity to develop their livelihoods.

A finales del siglo XIX y durante el primer tercio del siglo XX, Sudamérica se convirtió en una prominente región de destino de la migración, principalmente de Europa, China y Japón. La depresión económica que vivía Occidente, las guerras europeas, y las reminiscencia de las antiguas metrópolis hicieron de los países sudamericanos el destino elegido por millones de personas que buscaban un futuro más próspero.

We all remember those teachers who asked us what we want to be when we grow up. A critical moment in a child's life because that is when we begin to build our sense of self and anticipate what we might achieve in the future. A study published by the magazine Science reveals that girls from the age of six are less prone to consider their own sex as “brilliant”. The significant inequality between men and women, gender stereotypes, and the way we educate them cause girls to limit their aspirations, to build walls in their own heads.

Marcos, Marcela, Lucy, Juan, Adelaida, and Luz are not six names just pulled from a hat. They are six Latin American entrepreneurs who are getting ahead using small loans, savings, and microinsurance that protects what they are building. They are six of the 2 million people served by the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF).

After obtaining the pertinent regulatory authorizations, BBVA Group has closed the sale of its 68.19% stake in BBVA Chile and other companies in the country to Scotiabank, for a total of about $2.2 billion. The transaction will yield capital gains of about €640 million and will have a positive impact on BBVA’s fully-loaded CET 1 capital ratio of about 50 basis points.

According to BBVA Research’s Latin America Economic Outlook report for the second quarter of 2018, the region’s positive trends of recent years are set to continue, with GDP growth forecasted at 1.4% for 2018 and 2.5% for 2019. However, BBVA’s study service has downgraded its 2018 growth forecast for the region by three tenths.

Economic activity in Latin America has been invigorated in recent months, in line with the recovery of confidence among families and businesses and a more favorable external context. In its Latin America Economic Outlook for first quarter 2018, BBVA Research forecasts that the region’s growth will increase from 1.1% in 2017 to 1.7% in 2018 and 2.5% in 2019.

At BBVA, new digital solutions for customers are constantly being developed. The bank´s affiliates in Mexico, Peru and Chile are launching new tools for personal finance, implementing the use of the digital signature for contracting loans, and adding new functions to their cell phone apps.

BBVA continued leading the way to innovation in Latin America during 2017, becoming the region’s digital bank par excellence. That distinction was confirmed by Global Finance magazine, which judged BBVA’s mobile banking app to be the best in Latin America. BBVA’s local franchises in the region have set the pace in the development of products and services which, just as in the case of mobile banking, aim to make their customers’ lives easier and deliver on the Group’s intent to bring the age of opportunity to everyone.

Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Chile are examples of BBVA’s commitment to digitization and to offering the most advanced services for customers in the all markets where the bank operates. Chatbots, online investment funds and corporate leasing functions are all evidence of the bank’s progress in Latin America.

The TCR principles are the foundation of the roadmap BBVA wants to follow to achieve its goal of becoming the leading bank in transparency, clarity and responsibility. Still, there’s a long road ahead, one that requires work on two essential levels: traditional and digital banking.

The Pacific Alliance, made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, is a regional economic and comercial powerhouse.  This area grows more than the average in Latin America. BBVA Research expects GDP growth of 1.6% and 2.3% in 2017 and 2018, respectively.  "The Pacific Alliance is a success story in integration.  And not by chance.  It shares an ambition and a set of values behind this policy, on how prosperity should be reached," said Jose Manuel González-Páramo, executive director of BBVA in Santander.

Argentina and Brazil are finally pulling out of recession and driving the economic growth in Latin America as a whole this year, despite the slowdown in other countries in the region. According to BBVA Resarch’s ‘Latin America Economic Outlook’ Q3 report, the region will grow 0.8% in 2017 and 1.7% in 2018.

The economic slowdown in Latin America will come to an end this year, with a 1.1% growth rate in the region. Forecasts by BBVA Research estimate that in 2018, the region´s economy will continue to recover, with GDP expanding at the rate of 1.8%. This is still well below its potential, which is estimated at close to 3%.

The Internet of Things is today a reality. Apart from the benefits it can provide to companies, the IoT will become a powerful tool in the fight for citizen security, given its many possible uses.

The rules of the game are changing more and more quickly. Some authors refer to this period of change as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Klaus Schwab, Debate 2016) with “growing harmonization and integration of many different disciplines and discoveries” that affect both the physical world (autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, robotics, etc.) and the digital world (Internet of Things, blockchain, etc.).

Five global teams from BBVA Customer Solutions and five local teams from BBVA in South America. A total of 10 teams met in Dallas (Texas) with a common goal in mind: connecting around shared projects to ensure that BBVA capitalizes on global capacities to create amazing customer experiences. That was BBVA South America’s Global Week in Dallas.

BBVA celebrates International Working Women’s Day with further progress as regards work/life balance, entrepreneurship and professional promotion. This is the right time to look back on one year of initiatives that promote female talent and try to mitigate the social injustices that affect women.

The women of Chile want to play a more active role in society, and seek greater access to labor and entrepreneurial opportunities. BBVA has launched two important initiatives to eradicate inequality and encourage the incorporation of female talent into the world of entrepreneurship.

South America’s GDP will recover in 2017 after four years of economic slowdown, while Mexico will bear the impact of the uncertainty surrounding US policies, which is likely to hinder its growth prospects. These are the key conclusions of BBVA Research's Latin America Outlook Q1 2017 report.

Creating Opportunities is the BBVA Group’s new tagline. After a decade, ‘Adelante’ is giving way to a new tagline that fits with the bank’s new purpose: To bring the age of opportunity to everyone. In this interview, Carlos Ricardo, the BBVA Group’s Marketing Director and Brand Director Carlos Pérez Beruete explain the process that led to the new tagline. It will also be accompanied by a new image, identity, sound and value proposition. “2017 will be the year that consumers clearly see how the bank has been transforming in recent years,” they say.

BBVA has a new tagline: Creating Opportunities. The bank will start using it in February and it will be progressively introduced in all countries, all communications to customers and all of BBVA’s printed and digital materials. BBVA’s new tagline sums up the bank’s purpose, launched a few months ago: “To bring the age of opportunity to everyone”

The 2017 business year will mark a turning point for Latin American economies, with an estimate growth of 1.3% for the region as a whole, compared to a 1.3% dip in 2016. This is what emerges from BBVA Research’s 4th Quarter Latin America Outlook report. The recovery, however, will be gradual and the region will remain well below potential growth, about 3%.

Last week, the European Commission announced a new package of regulatory measures: An in-depth regulatory overhaul at all levels -  capital, capital adequacy, leverage ratio and loss-absorbing capacity -  aimed at “completing the post-crisis regulatory agenda by making sure that the regulatory framework addresses any outstanding challenges to financial stability, while ensuring that banks can continue to support the real economy.”

The day after Thanksgiving, or the last Friday of November, is celebrated nearly all over the world as Black Friday, the day that marks the first day of Christmas shopping. Over the years, with the arrival of new technologies, sales have been extended to Monday, known as Cyber Monday when discounts are offered for online shoppers.

Millenials have become the true engine of Latin America’s society. Not only in economic terms, but also in political and social aspects. They have witnessed the comeback of one of the most powerful regions in the world, and have been granted access to far greater technological resources than they would’ve ever imagined.

BBVA Foundation’s Biodiversity Conservation Awards recognize each year a number of activities based on scientific knowledge of nature. Each year, the winners show that good results can be obtained that have a lasting effect on the environment. This edition’s winners are engaged in activities as diverse as the rehabilitation of Spanish fauna, land conservation or recording a sound archive of nature.

The Roca brothers are having a very hectic time. Their normally frenetic life has been further intensified by several social projects. These projects include creating a foundation, meeting with vulnerable female entrepreneurs in Chile and the 2016 BBVA-El Celler de Can Roca Tour through London, Hong Kong, Phoenix, San Francisco and Santiago de Chile.

Being capable of turning any piece of information – numbers, documents, sounds, photos, etc. – into a string of zeros and ones and sharing it with the masses thanks to technology is one of the defining traits of the digital era.

According to BBVA Research’s latest report, Latin America’s slowdown process, which started in 2012, will bottom out this year, with a decline in activity of -0.9%, before giving way to positive GDP growth rates in 2017 of 1.8%. This increase in activity will be driven by growth in both public and private investment, especially in Argentina, Peru and Colombia, as well as stronger activity in the foreign sector, which will benefit from recent sharp currency depreciations and the gradual recovery in commodity prices.

He has worked at BBVA for 17 years and has spent a decade abroad, living out of a suitcase. Even though he has participated in numerous projects in various regions, and even continents, he says his job is to “be transparent.”

After a turbulent end of 2015 for Latin American emerging markets, fuelled by the collapse of commodity prices, the first half of 2016 has been quite different. Since January, investment funds operating in Latin America have reported solid profitability ratios, in many cases above 10%.

Productivity means doing things better, doing more with the same resources, combining them more efficiently to produce better results. And greater productivity – as well as more investment and jobs - is exactly what we need in Chile to return to the growth rates that improved millions of people’s quality of life over the past 25 years.

For Chileans, stars have become a valuable natural resource, capable of attracting millions in investments in the shape of the most advanced astronomical observatories, which have populated the arid Atacama desert landscape little by little. Thanks to them, scientists from across the world can enlighten humanity with their discoveries about galaxies, exoplanets and different interstellar events.

After a period of steady decline, the prices of copper -Chile's main export product- now stand at levels close the average cost of production of the mining companies that operate in the country. This has prompted a drop, not only in the industry’s investment and employment rates, but also in Chile’s economic activity level as a whole.