Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (hereinafter “the Bank” or “BBVA") is a private-law entity subject to the laws and regulations governing banking entities operating in Spain. It carries out its activity through branches and agencies across the country and abroad.
The Bylaws and other public information are available for inspection at the Bank’s registered address (Plaza San Nicolás, 4 Bilbao) as on its web site (www.bbva.com).
In addition to the transactions it carries out directly, the Bank heads a group of subsidiaries, joint venture and associates which perform a wide range of activities and which together with the Bank constitute the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Group (hereinafter, “the Group” or “the BBVA Group”). In addition to its own separate financial statements, the Bank is therefore required to prepare the Group’s consolidated financial statements.
As of December 31, 2015, the BBVA Group was made up of 373 consolidated entities and 116 entities accounted for using the equity method.
We are facing a new environment that poses a major challenge for the financial industry. The development of technology and consumer preferences are changing society and the way of doing business, having an impact on the banking industry, as has already happened in other sectors.
In addition, the sector's profitability is under pressure due to slower growth of activity and the pressure on all revenue lines, increasing regulatory pressure and capital requirements, general mistrust of traditional banking and the emergence of new competitors.
In this new setting, BBVA starts from an advantageous position because it has a large customer base, a huge amount of information, presence on attractive markets, a significant know-how in risk management, and a sound corporate governance model.
These strengths are the starting point of our transformation strategy, putting customers at the center to offer them the best solutions that help them manage their money and take the best financial decisions, with the aim of having more customers who are more satisfied, more loyal and more profitable.
To this end, a change was made in May 2015 to the Group's organizational structure to adapt it to this new strategy, speed up the transformation and contribute to the growth of the earnings of our franchises.
The Group has also defined 6 strategic priorities to guide this transformation:
- To offer the best customer experience: to develop a better end-to-end experience. For BBVA, this means devoting more time to talking to its customers and learning from them. In short, to transform the value proposition and thus help customers make better decisions. Our customers are not interested in knowing about the processes, policies, etc. They want us to help them solve their problems.
- To make progress in this area it is essential for customers to go digital, so we want to boost digital sales. To do so, we have to make the most of the new channels we have available, since a significant part of our customer base is demanding new ways of interacting with the Bank, particularly through mobile devices (for the retail segment) and specialized platforms (in the case of corporates).
- The third priority is to create, associate with or acquire new digital business models, businesses with new ways of providing financial services with different approaches and innovative value propositions.
- The fourth refers to optimizing capital allocation. This priority is focused on maximizing the return on available capital in a sustainable manner over time. There is increasing emphasis on obtaining a return on capital, which is a resource that since the outbreak of the crisis has become the most expensive and scarce resource in the banking industry, as regulatory demands have increased substantially.
- The fifth priority is based on adapting the model, the processes and the structures to achieve the best level of efficiency. It is necessary to leverage technology to enable us to simplify processes and develop the distribution model toward one more efficient from the structural point of view, giving us a competitive advantage over our peers.
- The last priority is associated with talent and the Group's culture: we want to develop, retain and motivate the best team. In the same way that we want to offer the best experience for our customers, we also strive to develop the best “employee experience”. This means offering an attractive value proposition to enable the best talent to be identified, attracted and retained, contributing to the development of the professional careers of each employee. In this way we want each interaction by employees with the Bank to be excellent, leading to greater satisfaction for both parties.
- La última prioridad está asociada al talento y la cultura del Grupo Queremos desarrollar, retener y motivar al mejor equipo. De la misma forma que queremos ofrecer la mejor experiencia para los clientes, también buscamos desarrollar la mejor “experiencia de empleado”. Esto supone ofrecerle una propuesta de valor atractiva que permita identificar, atraer y retener al mejor talento, contribuyendo al desarrollo de las carreras profesionales de cada uno de ellos. De esta forma, queremos que cada interacción del empleado con el Banco sea excelente, redundando en una mayor satisfacción de ambas partes.