Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (‘BBVA’) is a customer-centric global financial services company.
Internationally diversified and with strengths in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management and wholesale banking, the company is committed to offering a compelling digital proposition focused on customer experience. For this purpose, the company is focused on increasingly offering products online and through mobile channels, improving the functionality of its dig...
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (‘BBVA’) is a customer-centric global financial services company.
Internationally diversified and with strengths in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management and wholesale banking, the company is committed to offering a compelling digital proposition focused on customer experience. For this purpose, the company is focused on increasingly offering products online and through mobile channels, improving the functionality of its digital offerings and refining the customer experience, contributing to the delivery of its strategy in a sustainable and inclusive way.
Segments
The company’s five operating segments are: Spain, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Business.
Spain
This operating segment includes all of BBVA’s banking and non-banking businesses in Spain, other than those included in the Corporate Center. The primary business units included in this operating segment are:
Spanish Retail Network: including individual customers, private banking, small companies, and businesses in the domestic market;
Corporate and Business Banking: which manages small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), companies, and corporations, and public institutions;
Corporate and Investment Banking: responsible for business with corporations and multinational groups, and the trading floor and distribution business in Spain; and
Other units: which include the insurance business unit in Spain (BBVA Seguros), as well as the company’s shareholding in Campania de Seguros y Reaseguros, S.A., the Asset Management unit (which manages Spanish mutual funds and pension funds), lending to real estate developers and foreclosed real estate assets in Spain, as well as certain proprietary portfolios and certain funding and structural interest-rate positions of the euro balance sheet which are not included in the Corporate Center. During 2020, BBVA Seguros transferred to Allianz, Campania de Seguros y Reaseguros, S.A. (‘Allianz’), 50% of the share capital plus one share in BBVA Seguros Generales.
Mexico
The Mexico operating segment includes the banking, insurance, and asset management business conducted in Mexico by BBVA Mexico. It also includes BBVA Mexico’s agency in Houston.
Turkey
This operating segment comprises the activities carried out by Garanti BBVA as an integrated financial services group operating in the banking, insurance, and asset management business in Turkey, including corporate, commercial, SME, payment systems, retail, private, and investment banking, together with its subsidiaries in pension and life insurance, leasing, factoring, brokerage, and asset management, as well as its international subsidiaries in Romania and the Netherlands.
South America
The South America operating segment includes the company’s banking, finance, insurance, and asset management business mainly in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Brazil. It also includes representative offices in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and in Santiago (Chile).
The main business units included in the South America operating segment are:
Retail and Corporate Banking: includes banks in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Brazil.
Insurance: includes insurance businesses in Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela.
Rest of Business
This operating segment mainly includes the wholesale activity carried out by the company in Europe (excluding Spain), the United States, and (through BBVA branches located therein) Asia.
Insurance Activity
The company has insurance subsidiaries mainly in Spain, Latin America (mostly in Mexico), and Turkey. The insurance entities located in Spain and Mexico together accounted for approximately 95% of total liabilities under insurance and reinsurance contracts as of December 31, 2024. The main products offered by the insurance subsidiaries are life insurance to cover the risk of death and life-savings insurance. Within life insurance, a distinction is made between freely sold products and those offered to customers who have taken mortgage or consumer loans, which cover the principal of those loans in the event of the customer’s death.
The company offers, in general, two types of savings products: individual insurance, which seeks to provide the customer with savings for retirement or other events, and collective insurance, which is taken out by employers to cover their commitments to their employees.
Deposits
The principal components of the company’s customer deposits are domestic demand and time deposits, and foreign demand and time deposits.
Securities Portfolio
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s total securities portfolio were investment securities and loans and advances.
Competition
Caixabank and Banco Santander are the company’s main competitors in the Spanish market.
Supervision and Regulation
The company’s ‘home’ supervisor is the European Central Bank (‘ECB’) at the European level and the Bank of Spain at the national level, both authorities being part of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (‘SSM’). The company is also subject to supervision by a wide variety of other local authorities given its global presence, which are considered to be ‘host’ supervisors given the company’s foreign origin. These include authorities in countries, such as the United States (the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (‘FRBNY’) has the primary supervisory responsibility for the company’s New York branch, with input from other Federal and State authorities that have supervisory responsibilities for various BBVA entities operating in the United States), Mexico, Turkey, and the whole of BBVA’s footprint in South America.
Because BBVA maintains a branch in the United States, it is a foreign banking organization and a bank holding company within the meaning of the U.S. Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (the ‘BHC Act’), and the International Banking Act of 1978, as amended (the ‘IBA’), and as a result, BBVA is subject to regulation and supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the ‘Federal Reserve’).
BBVA’s non-FDIC insured New York branch is supervised by the Federal Reserve through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as licensed and supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services. In August 2024, BBVA established its Houston representative office, which is supervised by the Federal Reserve through the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as well as licensed and supervised by the Texas Department of Banking. BBVA Mexico, S.A.’s agency office in Houston, Texas is a non-FDIC insured agency office of BBVA Mexico, S.A., an indirect subsidiary of BBVA, which is licensed under the laws of the State of Texas and supervised by the Texas Department of Banking and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act and Regulation W place various qualitative and quantitative restrictions on transactions between BBVA’s U.S. branch and agency and BBVA’s U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary with regard to extensions of credit, credit exposures arising from derivative transactions, and securities borrowing and lending transactions, or engaging in certain other transactions involving the U.S. branch and agency.
Under Title I of the Dodd-Frank Act and implementing regulations issued by the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, BBVA must prepare and submit a plan for the orderly resolution of its U.S. subsidiaries and U.S. operations in the event of future material financial distress or failure (the ‘Title I Resolution Plan’).
BBVA is registered as a ‘swap dealer’ as defined in the Commodity Exchange Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the ‘CFTC’), which subjects BBVA to regulation and supervision by the CFTC and the National Futures Association with respect to its activities involving ‘swaps’ (as defined in the Commodity Exchange Act), which include many types of over-the-counter derivatives, such as interest rate swaps and certain foreign exchange derivatives.
BBVA’s worldwide swap activities are also subject to regulations adopted by the European Commission pursuant to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (‘EMIR’) and the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (‘MiFID’) and other European regulations and directives.
BBVA’s direct U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary, BBVA Securities Inc. (‘BSI’), is subject to regulation and supervision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (‘SEC’) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (‘FINRA’) with respect to its securities activities, as well as various U.S. state regulatory authorities. In addition, the securities underwriting and dealing activities of BSI are subject to regulation and supervision by the Federal Reserve.
The activities of BBVA’s U.S. investment adviser affiliate are regulated and supervised by the SEC.
History
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. was founded in 1857. The company was incorporated in Spain in 1988.