BBVA, Spain’s Second-Largest Bank, Is Using Artificial Intelligence To Transform Itself
When Francisco Gonzalez, who at the time was executive chairman of Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, proclaimed in 2015 that “BBVA will be a software company in the future,” it was undoubtedly met with a fair amount of skepticism. However, beginning in 2007 and continuing to today, BBVA is working diligently to achieve his vision. Here we discuss just a few of the ways BBVA uses technology to transform and get ready for the 4th industrial revolution.
Even though BBVA’s history dates back to 1857, the bank is firmly focused on being a disruptor in the financial industry today and into the future. BBVA is a global financial services group with operations in Spain, Mexico, South America, Turkey, and the United States. The company’s leadership is mindful of the changes to the financial services industry that require new approaches to doing business such as more pressure on profitability, specialized players in the market, the opportunities presented by a large amount of data collected and game-changing technology, and consumers who expect digital experiences. As a result, the company invested in improving its platform (especially regarding mobile functionality) and created new digital tools and acquired other tech entities.
A customer-centric platform was one of the first priorities and technology investments for BBVA. The platform is scalable, modular and operates in real-time to provide mobile customers service they demand. Also, this platform allows BBVA to develop services such as the BBVA Wallet, a mobile payments app, that make the bank competitive among new startups and digital companies.
BBVA also plans and develops products with a framework similar to how financial-technology startups plan and develop products. This rapid-fire ideation and prototype process makes the company agile, productive and able to deliver innovation on a similar timetable to digital giants. Gonzalez believes BBVA’s biggest competitors will eventually be tech giants such as Google and Amazon, so he is focused on transforming his bank to be able to compete with them well before they choose to enter the industry. BBVA’s knowledge of its customers and what they want should be a way to help the company stay competitive even if the tech giants decide to step into banking.
Another innovative digital tool created by BBVA is the BBVA AvalBox that digitizes company guarantees. As the first Spanish bank to offer an online tool to submit a bank guarantee request and have it evaluated, a process that used only to be done on paper and in person, BBVA enhanced the efficiency of the process; an innovation that will impact thousands of businesses.
BBVA developed several other apps to support its customers with digital tools. The company’s app for homebuyers called Valora pulls together data from a variety of sources to give homebuyers price information on houses that are for sale, comparable sales figures for homes that sold nearby and estimates what you can expect to receive if you sell your house. An app to send payment between America and Mexico called Tuyyo was also developed.
