BBVA and digital business account provider Azlo struck a partnership that focuses on freelancers; with the freelance worker trend increasing the bank is looking to position themselves to better serve the market; BBVA invested in and helped incubate the company through their New Digital Businesses unit; this is part of a wider trend at the bank to help innovation, both inside and outside the bank itself. Source.
Spanish banks have been focusing on going digital to help keep ahead of competition; banks like Santander and BBVA have improved their mobile app access and started innovation teams to invest or partner with fintech companies; they have also changed their culture to better resemble a startup and have started talent competitions; while the banks have had their share of issues the digital focus can help to drive down costs and keep the banks ahead of the curve. Source.
During a panel discussion at LendIt Europe in London representatives from leading incumbent lenders Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), ING, BBVA, HSBC, and Barclays discussed the challenges faces in the new digital world; topics discussed include cultural transformation, more power in the customers hands and trying to stay on top of the latest tech trends. Source.
Continuing with its fintech acquisition strategy, BBVA has acquired Openpay; Openpay is a Mexican B2B payments platform with more than one million transactions per month; with the new support, Openpay will seek to triple its transaction volume. Source
The MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) has provided a research briefing on digital banking with Spanish bank BBVA as the focus of the study; the study, "Is Your Company a Digital Leader or Laggard" examines the success of BBVA's digital banking model, and reports on factors that are differentiating leaders and laggards in the digital banking business. Source
The digital push at BBVA has helped the company to a 20 percent rise in profits; the changes have helped the company to lower costs while boosting profits; “The strength of recurring revenues and the improvement in efficiency show that we are advancing decisively in our transformation strategy,” said Francisco González, the group’s executive group chairman to the Financial Times. “2017 was a good year and 2018 will be an even better one.” Source.
Lend Academy interviews the CEO of BBVA’s new SME online lending initiative called Trustu; Vinacua discusses their innovation centers, how they interact with startups, why they decided to launch a platform, the social underwriting component of the underwriting and more. Source
BBVA launched the "fintech games" in the search for the most innovative startups; the finalists for the Open Talent FinTech For Companies Challenge include Bitbond, Cardlife, RedCapital, B2Bpay, Akoni, PayBlocks, Asteria, Invoice Capture and MyFinB Holdings; the companies hail from countries all over the world and the competition closed on July 17; according to BBVA, "After eight years of focusing purely on seeking out the fintech firms that are transforming the Financial world, this year at BBVA Open Talent we are broadening the competition as we continue searching for talent and collaboration." Source
Through the partnership BBVA Compass Insurance Agency will offer a new online insurance portal powered by Covr; BBVA Compass Insurance Agency is an affiliate of banking provider BBVA Compass which is supported by the Spanish bank BBVA; the new insurance offering will provide customers with a range of options and quote comparisons for life, disability, home, auto and pet insurance with access through desktop and mobile connections. Source
Atom Bank has raised $102 million in new capital from Spanish bank BBVA who also led a previous funding round in 2015; the company plans to use the funding for business and product development including lending services; the digital bank's current products include: Fixed Saver accounts, mortgages, and secured loans for small and medium-sized businesses; the company is also reportedly working on another funding round and is currently valued at approximately $320 million. Source