BBVA has appointed Antonio Bravo as the Global Head of Data. He will replace Ricardo Martín Manjón, who’s leaving the bank to embark on new professional projects.

Garanti BBVA announced its financial results as of December 31, 2024. Net income totaled TL 92.18 billion while assets stood at TL 3 trillion. The bank also contributed TL 2 trillion to the economy through cash and non-cash loans. Customer deposits funded 70 percent of assets, with a total customer deposit base of TL 2.10 trillion (up 30.8 percent in 2024). Garanti BBVA also reported a capital adequacy ratio of 18.2 percent,*  Return on Average Equity (ROAE) of 32.5 percent and Return on Average Assets (ROAA) of 3.5 percent.

*Does not include the forbearance introduced by BRSA

BBVA has been implementing various plans and initiatives to attract the best tech talent (engineers, mathematicians, and experts in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data management) - one of the most in-demand fields in the job market and a key aspect of the bank’s digital strategy. In the last three years, BBVA has added 10,100 new data and technology professionals to its workforce. The bank expects to boost this number with 1,100 new hires to reach a total workforce of 20,000 people dedicated to these roles.

BBVA CEO Onur Genç proclaimed at The World Economic Forum that in the Iberian Peninsula “we have in front of us a great opportunity to promote cleantech investment on a major scale.” In his view, it is essential to harness the development of industrial clusters in Spain and Portugal to lead the energy transition in Europe. In this context, the Iberian Peninsula has tremendous potential to generate economic growth on the back of clean technologies.

The BBVA Foundation has granted its Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies to Anil K. Jain (Michigan State University, United States) and Michael I. Jordan (University of California, Berkeley, United States) for their “core contributions” to machine learning, which have unlocked developments in biometrics and artificial intelligence.

For the third consecutive year, the bank received the ‘Top Employer 2025’ seal, which accredits BBVA as a role model for talent management in Spain.

Three micro-entrepreneurs running small cocoa farming businesses were the stars of ‘Seeds for a sustainable future’, an event organized by the BBVA Microfinance Foundation under the presidency of Queen Letizia of Spain. The Queen, who underlined the Foundation’s invaluable work in supporting the progress of millions of people, was accompanied by BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila and by renowned pastry chef Jordi Roca.

Garanti BBVA Crypto Asset Trading Platform, part of the Garanti BBVA Group, recently announced that Korcan Abalı will be stepping down as CEO and Onur Güven will replace him. Güven has been a senior manager at a variety of renowned financial technology companies.

Quantum computing, new energy sources, and AI agents: 2025 is set to be defined by a renewed drive for potentially disruptive technologies, with global technology investment projected to grow by 9 percent, according to Gartner.

The finance department plays a pivotal role in the transformation of an organization. Although the CFO (chief financial officer) has traditionally been viewed as the guardian of a company’s finances, they happen to play a much bigger role. They help to shape the strategic roadmap needed to embark on this transformation and allocate the resources to make it all happen. This is what Luisa Gómez Bravo, Global Head of Finance at BBVA, had to say in a recent interview published by Forbes magazine, together with Carmen de Pablo, Chief Financial, Strategy and Sustainability Officer at Moeve, and Laura Abasolo, Chief Financial and Control Officer at Telefónica.

The BBVA Foundation has honored four researchers with the Frontiers of Knowledge Award for their groundbreaking work in establishing the biological foundations for a new class of drugs. These drugs are highly effective in treating type 2 diabetes, promoting significant weight loss in obese individuals, and reducing their risk of cardiovascular issues.

Garanti BBVA Crypto, a subsidiary of Garanti BBVA, recently entered a partnership with Bitstamp, the world’s longest-operating crypto exchange platform and core liquidity provider. The aim of this partnership is to allow customers to trade in multiple currencies. In addition, investors in both crypto currencies and traditional financial markets can trade a series of approved digital assets, thus helping to boost crypto access and adoption in Türkiye.

Achieving the goals we set at the start of the year is often challenging—not necessarily due to a lack of willpower, but because of the absence of a clear method. If improving financial health is the objective, certain key principles can help us live comfortably now while planning for future well-being.

On Tuesday, BBVA issued a contingent convertible (CoCo or AT1) bond in the amount of $1 billion dollars, with an early redemption option in seven years. The operation kicks off the 2025 debt market, making BBVA the first EU bank to issue debt in this format this year. With this transaction, the bank is reinforcing its ability to diversify sources of funding.

The mass deployment of more than 3,000 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses across the BBVA Group has unleashed a wave of innovative ideas on how to apply generative AI to improve productivity. Quickly locating information to answer legal queries from customers, increasing the visibility of marketing actions, streamlining the management of large volumes of data or helping code development are just four examples of the more than 900 use cases of strategic interest that have already been implemented by the bank’s employees.

BBVA’s Turkish franchise secured its highest-ever score of 85 in the 2024 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), leading Türkiye’s banking sector once again. The bank also ranked 15th globally among 668 financial institutions assessed, further cementing its position as a leader in sustainability. S&P Global-CSA is one of the most respected platforms for evaluating corporate sustainability, providing a benchmark for international investors. The assessment covers areas such as business ethics, governance, risk management, climate action, transparency, and human rights.

Researchers at BBVA and IBM Research have designed a dataset that functions as a stress test to measure the presence of discriminatory bias in the responses given by generative artificial intelligence models in languages other than English. The BBVA team’s stress test measures biases that could exist in GenAI in Spanish. The work was shown at NeurIPS, the world’s biggest AI conference, and was made available to the open source community to continue the research.

Garanti BBVA customers can now apply for a used vehicle loan through Garanti BBVA Mobile without ever having to visit a branch, allowing them to finance the purchase of any second-hand vehicle they may wish to purchase from a dealership or a private seller.

With the creation of the new Analytics Transformation Unit, BBVA brings together its global team of over 2,500 data scientists and specialists, aiming to advance the development of data-driven services by leveraging the latest innovations in artificial intelligence.

BBVA ranks first in the ‘4th Cybersecurity Transparency Report’ prepared by Watch & Act Protection Service, which is based on public information on Spanish Ibex35 companies.

In 2023, BBVA chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate its data-driven transformation. A year later, and the bank’s global cloud data platform is a reality. Following a process that involved multiple use cases and numerous teams, BBVA has successfully completed the full migration in Europe and Uruguay to its ADA (Analytics, Data, AI) cloud platform. The project involved the complex task of migrating tens of thousands of processes and thousands of users, all with no service interruptions. Given its success, the BBVA Group is now preparing to expand ADA in 2025 to the other countries in which it operates, including Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Argentina.

By 2030, clean technologies, or ‘cleantech’ will mobilize over €150 billion of investment and create 2.65 million new jobs in the Iberian Peninsula, according to ‘Cleantech for Iberia’. These are some of the projections of the potential growth included in the new monographic study on sustainability published by BBVA, in this edition dedicated to clean technologies.

After seven years of giving a voice to more than 450 protagonists and having amassed a community of over 1 million followers, BBVA has celebrated these milestones by taking a further step forward in its education project for a greener and more inclusive future. The Palacio de la Prensa in Madrid recently hosted its first face-to-face event (open to everyone and with free entry) under the ‘Aprendemos juntos 2030’ (Learning Together 2030) international tour. The event was inaugurated by BBVA’s Chair, Carlos Torres Vila, who, together with prominent figures such as psychiatrist Marian Rojas Estapé, professor and writer Victor Küppers, and writer Daniel Habif, kicked off a series of events that will be held in Barcelona, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Lima and Montevideo throughout 2025.

The Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) has granted approval for BBVA to indirectly acquire Banco Sabadell's shares in various subsidiaries in Mexico. Cofece's analysis determined that the transaction poses no risk to competition in the Mexican banking sector.

For the fifth year running, BBVA earned the best score in the banking category in Europe and finished joint third globally in the latest S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). Rating agency S&P carries out this CSA to determine those companies that make its Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila claimed “Education is a revolutionary force; it is the engine of opportunity and a foundation for equality” at a 'Aprendemos juntos 2030' (Learning Together 2030) event for a live audience, held today in Madrid. Carlos Torres Vila announced an international tour for this BBVA educational program, set to visit Barcelona, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Lima, and Montevideo in 2025.

Reorienting the workforce, attracting talent and improving energy infrastructure are some of the key areas the consulting firm McKinsey & Company has identified for the European Union can unleash its potential in artificial intelligence. This would allow labor productivity in Europe to increase by up to three percent annually by 2030, while reducing the gap with more competitive countries in AI, such as the United States.

Garanti BBVA recently revamped ‘Garanti BBVA Mobile’, making it faster and easier for investors to monitor and manage their investment portfolios directly on the app. The new menu for investments allows customers to view their portfolio distribution, check the status and research investment options that match their investment goals - all on a single screen. Furthermore, Garanti BBVA Mobile also offers educational content designed to improve customers’ investment knowledge in its Investment Academy.

BBVA is all set to acquire a stake in FCA Compañía Financiera, a Stellantis firm specializing in auto financing in Argentina. This new joint venture must first be green-lighted by the competent authorities.

Juan Blasco, Global Head of Institutional Business at BBVA CIB, has been appointed Chair of the Board of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME). Blasco takes on this role with the goal of contributing to the strengthening of European capital markets, fostering their integration and enhancing their ability to meet the needs of businesses and investors.

BBVA's country manager in Spain, Peio Belausteguigoita, stated on Tuesday that the deal with Banco Sabadell holds significant potential for value creation. “Having larger and more robust banks benefits customers, shareholders, and employees,” he remarked during the II Financial Forum of Prensa Ibérica, titled ‘Strategies for the Future European Banking Union.’ He also emphasized that the integration will result in an institution with an enhanced “ability to provide improved products and services to customers.”

BBVA Mexico has become the first financial institution in the country to manage 1.012 trillion pesos in investment funds, according to the latest report by the Asociación Mexicana de Instituciones Bursátiles (Mexican Association of Stock Market Institutions, or AMIB). Now, as part of the bank’s strategy to professionalize its team, BBVA Mexico has reached an agreement with the CFA Institute to allow 140 of the bank’s investment advisors to obtain certifications with a focus on socially responsible investing and data science.

BBVA was recognized for the second time as the best bank in Spain by The Banker, part of the U.K.-based Financial Times publishing group. Having also won the award in 2022, the bank has now earned the accolade in 2024 for its focus on innovation, digitization and sustainability. BBVA Spain Country Manager Peio Belausteguigoitia described the award as “a reflection of the hard work and dedication of the entire BBVA team” and emphasized the bank’s commitment to integrating advanced technologies to improve customer service. In addition, BBVA received the global award for financial inclusion for its work through the BBVA Microfinance Foundation. The bank was also recognized as the best in Peru and Venezuela.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the way we interact with the world. At BBVA, the Behavioral Economics team works to leverage its potential in a safe and responsible way by improving customer experience and process efficiency. How? By shaping AI development and adoption.

For the first time this year, Garanti BBVA has secured a syndicated loan aligned with the Sustainable Debt Financing Framework. The loan is part of the bank’s international borrowing program and has a maturity of 367 days. The loan consists of two tranches, $244 million, and €162.4 million, with 43 banks participating. The loan was fully renewed, with costs set at SOFR + 1.75 percent, and Euribor +1.5 percent, respectively.

BBVA’s CEO, Onur Genç, spoke on Tuesday at a financial event held in London to address the need to consolidate large European banks capable of leading an increasingly competitive global market: “Europe needs larger, stronger and more efficient institutions to support economic growth.” The combination between BBVA and Banco Sabadell is a major step forward in this direction. Not only will it benefit Spain, but it will also make the bank a stronger competitor on the global stage, supporting SMEs and financing high-impact projects, explained BBVA’s CEO at the Global Banking Summit organized by the Financial Times.

Peio Belausteguigoitia, BBVA’s Country Manager in Spain, stated on Friday that the combination of the two banks will have greater capacity to offer financing to families and businesses, estimated at €5 billion per year. Speaking at the ‘S’Agaró 2024 Business Forum,’ he also added that BBVA will continue to collaborate with the Spanish regulator CNMC to get the green light to the transaction.