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Other financial inclusion initiatives.

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BBVA pledges to establish a long-term relationship between people and the institution.
This starts by giving people easier access to financial services.
Some of BBVA’s challenges include helping people to save, inculcating banking culture and helping them to manage their personal finances.
To fulfill this goal of expanding opportunities, BBVA aims to offer the following:

  • a low-cost account
  • the promotion of the use of channels other than our branches and
  • technological platform innovation

Mexico

Bancomer leads the field in Mexico as far as banking penetration is concerned by creating products and channels that meet the needs of people who do not use banking services and with a long-term sight of the customer relationship in mind.

The BBVA Bancomer Express Account turns cell phones into a bank account that can be opened immediately and is easy to use, low-cost and very secure. The account holder is also given an international debit card for in-store purchases and ATM withdrawals. With this product, the stock of which multiplied by 26 in 2011 in relation to the end of 2010, the aim is to promote banking penetration among the population and improve their quality of life.

Non-Banking Correspondents also mean that customer needs can be met all year round during out-of-branch hours, covering a larger area. In 2011 there were 17,973 customer service points, 257% up on 2010. A total 20.1 million transactions were carried out, almost 38% more than the previous year.

BTS (Bancomer Transfer Services) processed 40% of electronic remittances sent to Mexico in 2011, while BBVA Bancomer paid 57% of the electronic remittances paid at banks in Mexico. This accounted for a total 26 million transactions amounting to $10,530 million.

South America

Non-Banking Correspondent points gave BBVA Colombia access to municipalities and urban areas of major cities that were previously out of its reach and allowed thousands of people access to the Group’s global services.

In 2011 the number of Non-Banking Correspondent points in Colombia totaled 223, which is 30% more than 2010, and the geographical scope was widened to 130 municipalities.

This channel continued to grow in Peru in 2011 in terms of transactions and service points. Presence was boosted in areas with no branches and locations with branches nearby were also sought to make transactions easier for customers. By the end of the year, BBVA Continental had 400 Express Correspondents, 67 Express Plus Correspondents and 852 Kasnet Correspondents, totaling 1,319 customer service points (16% more than the previous year). Management of this network was based on optimizing use of the channel via various incentive campaigns. This increased the average number of transactions per store to 800 transactions (742 the year before).

To increase banking penetration among the Venezuelan population, this year BBVA Provincial boosted its Planes Nómina service, continuing to provide a wide variety of benefits to businesses and their employees.

These include the Nómina Estándar plan targeted at low-income employees, who are given a Tarjeta Popular (popular card) as means of payment, which has functions and advantages tailored to the needs of this group. With this card they can access their wage payments more quickly, conveniently and securely by withdrawing cash from ATMS and making purchases at points of sale, access their account via Provinet and Línea Provincial digital banking, collect Provimillas points to receive discounts on purchases at participating stores, take out personal accident insurance, home emergency medical insurance, and be exempt from certain fees and commissions, among other benefits.

United States

BBVA Compass is participating in the Bank on initiative, which aims to improve access to financial services for disadvantaged people.

Bank On is a joint effort to include people who do not use banking services in the financial system by giving them access to basic, low-cost bank products. The program also seeks to raise awareness regarding the benefits of holding a checking account and provide low-income segments of the population with proper and affordable training on how to manage money.

Spain

BBVA in Spain has been working on the financial integration of migrants from the start of the phenomenon of immigration to Spain. Foreigners now represent 12% of the total Spanish population, and 405,000 are BBVA customers. Since 2005 BBVA has offered a range of general products and financial products specially designed for immigrants.

In figures, immigrants have 33% of their income and 31% of their bills paid by direct billing. Total card holding was 40% and life insurance 10%. In 2011 more than 84% of the money that customers transferred to their relatives was via non-face-to-face means (ATM, Internet or phone), with the majority via ATM (76 %). There are 20 destination countries in this network, with money being sent to Latin American countries and to countries whose communities are very present in Spain, including Morocco and Romania, not to mention important countries such as Brazil, China and Russia.


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