Inclusive Growth

In the month of June, the financial institution held nearly 50 volunteer activities worldwide in which more than 6,300 bank employees participated. With these activities, BBVA is promoting support for society and the environment through volunteering.

The challenge of diversity is one of the key transformation pillars for any company. In the case of BBVA, ensuring a diverse workplace, in the broadest sense of the term, allows the company to better address the needs of its diverse customer base and offer a more comprehensive service.

More than 1,200 BBVA employees have taken part in activities related to financial inclusion and literacy and environmental protection in Argentina, with the initiatives having taken place in various communities across the country.

The events aim to provide support and guidance for sectors and institutions impacted by both the European Green Deal and Carbon Border Regulation processes.

BBVA has been recognized for its Outstanding Financial Leadership in Sustaining Communities at a global level, at the Global Finance magazine's Sustainable Finance Awards 2023. The bank also won three other regional awards in different sustainability-related categories.

BBVA's Peruvian subsidiary has become the Group's first bank in Latin America to have an accessible app, specifically for the visually impaired. This will enable users to carry out all kinds of operations in a simpler and safer way.

BBVA earmarked €131 million for social programs and investment in the community in 2022, almost 19% more than the previous year's €106.3 million. The contribution reached 77.8 million people overall, 43% more than in the previous year.

BBVA is firmly committed to working towards building a greener and more inclusive society. To this end, for the third consecutive year and on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the bank will make a donation of 300,000 euros to social organizations working in four areas related to the environment and inclusive growth. Fundación Grandes Amigos en Acción, CESAL, Fundación Plan Internacional and Fundación Ecomar were the winning organisations in 2022.

The latest figures from the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF)’s Research team estimate that extreme poverty in Latin America has increased in the last few years because of the pandemic and recently, as a result of the war in Ukraine and the state of the global economy, among other reasons. To such an extent that currently, of every 100 poor people, 42 are in extreme poverty, that is, they cannot cover their basic needs, including food.

The Group’s Turkish franchise adds a different dimension to its work on sustainability and inclusive growth, two areas at the center of its strategy.

For the first time in history, the number of displaced people around the world exceeds 100 million, according to the latest UNHCR data. In Ukraine alone, eight million people have fled since February. To put it into perspective, if a country were formed with all of them, it would rank as the fourteenth most populous on the planet as they are equivalent to more than 1% of the world's population. This figure includes refugees and asylum seekers, as well as the 53.2 million people displaced by conflicts within their own countries. Many of them flee with little and have to start from scratch, sometimes from an even more vulnerable situation. Their settlement and success in the country of settlement depends very much on their legal status because displaced, migrant and refugee are not synonymous.

In the past 15 years, around 1.5 billion adults have been included in the financial system, where microfinance has played a key role. Giovanni di Plácido, director of Analysis and Research for BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF), recounts the creation of loans and monetary transactions to the advent of microfinance as a formula for inclusion, and the Foundation's leading role in the transformation of this sector in its 15 years of activity.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila announced today at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos that BBVA and the Edison Alliance are joining forces with the BBVA Microfinance Foundation's commitment to contribute to the digital inclusion of vulnerable populations in Latin America.

BBVA is firmly committed to working towards building a greener and more inclusive society. To this end, for the second consecutive year and on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting, the bank will make a donation of 300,000 euros to social organizations working in four areas related to the environment and inclusive growth. ATADES, Aldeas Infantiles SOS, Asociación Amica and ECODES were the winning organizations in 2022.

BBVA allocated €106.3 million to social programs and initiatives that benefited 44.2 million people in 2021. This figure accounts for 20% of total planned expenditure, as announced in the Bank's Community Commitment for the period 2021-2025 (€500 million). In the first year of the period, 45% of the goal of reaching 100 million people has almost been achieved.

BBVA is one of 28 banks around the world that has joined the global commitment to promote financial inclusion and the financial health of its customers. Under the umbrella of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking, the aim of this benchmark index is for a group of banks to join forces to accelerate a collective effort for these issues.

In its annual report, Intrama includes the success stories of more than 30 Spanish companies with the best practices in Diversity and Inclusion, of which BBVA is one. The global human resources consulting firm highlights the financial institution's strategic alignment of diversity policies, the communication of its projects and the training provided to its staff in this area.

BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres Vila, met this Thursday at the bank's headquarters in Madrid with the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Mauricio Claver-Carone. This meeting is part of a series of working meetings that representatives of BBVA and the BBVA Microfinance Foundation will hold with members of the IDB. Sustainability was one of the issues on the agenda, in particular, support for the decarbonization of emerging countries, and especially in Latin America, as well as financial inclusion and the promotion of foreign investment in the region.

“At BBVA, there are more than 100,000 people working in over 25 countries, with a wide range of different cultures, experiences, beliefs, languages, etc. This diversity is a fundamental part of the recipe to our success, and it will make us stronger to face the challenges and opportunities that lie before us,” said BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres Vila at the main event of the bank’s Diversity Days, a series of internal events being held for the second year in a row to share important advances in terms of diversity and inclusion, and to create a space for learning for all of the Group’s employees.

‘Vamping’ is a term that comes from the English words ‘vampire’ (vampire, animal active at night) and ‘texting’ (sending messages) and refers to the practice, carried out mostly by teenagers, which consists in making excessive use of electronic devices such as cell phones, laptops, tablets, consoles... just before going to sleep. As a result, their rest is affected due to the reduction of the necessary hours of sleep and the effects on our body produced by the light from the screens. This phenomenon is causing many young people to suffer from early insomnia.

When Blanca Huergo knocked on BBVA’s door less than two years ago, she could never have imagined that she would wind up visiting its Madrid headquarters to meet with its top executives. This young Mathematics and Computer Science student at the University of Oxford has become a role model for many girls in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) career areas where they are scarce.

A lack of role models, stereotypes and difficulties accessing funding make it hard for women to launch businesses. Committing to work-life balance, redefining the face of entrepreneurs and new business and digital models are some key aspects that could help make entrepreneurial opportunities more egalitarian.

BBVA granted FONPLATA a structured loan for $100 million that will allow this development bank to finance support programs aimed at tackling the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America. This structured loan is part of FONPLATA's strategy to diversify its sources of financing.

Every June 28, the world celebrates sexual and gender diversity, a reality that is reflected in each of the letters and symbols of the acronym that defines this community.

'Diversidad Trans. Punto de encuentro' is the manual presented by the financial institution that includes guidelines and protocols focused on supporting trans or gender transitioning employees or customers. Diversity and inclusion in general, and particularly LGBTIQ+, are intrinsic to BBVA's DNA and are part of its strategic and business objectives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the implementation of new forms of flexible working, for which digital transformation has been key. Thousands of workers have had to convert their homes into places of work, almost overnight. This fact has affected the work life balance, and it became of utmost importance in an ecosystem where work and life were sharing space, to facilitate that balance.

Much has been written about generational differences and how to classify the population according to someone's year of birth. The truth is that there is no exact or official definition of when a generation begins or ends and, depending on which demographers or researchers you consult, there are discrepancies about the years that comprise each generation.

The agile work methodology, new skills that teams look for or the recent inclusion of diversity as a strategic business priority are some of the ways in which BBVA’s human team has changed over the past few years. Paloma Tejada, head of Talent and Culture, Agile and Communications, at Client Solutions, BBVA, spoke about all of them in a conversation with Matthew Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum.

Although male stereotypes dominate science and technology, the reality is that these areas are becoming increasingly diverse and more women are gradually landing technical jobs. Today, February 11, on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, four professionals from BBVA's Engineering and Organization unit share their views on how to tear down barriers and get young girls more interested in tech jobs.