One of the first banks to create a global mobile wallet, BBVA has announced that there has more than one million downloads of the Wallet application in the two years since its launch. Available in four countries already (Spain, Mexico, Chile and USA), the app is being launched in Turkey this week and includes payment and loyalty functions. While the wallet has hit one million downloads over two years, BBVA expects the Wallet app will be downloaded at least five million times by the end of 2016.
Commenting on the wallet, Mehmet Sezgin, global head of payments for BBVA, says,
“With over 80% of the world’s payments still in cash, we believe there’s a big opportunity to move from 1 to 5 million downloads by the end of 2016. I firmly believe that people using plastic will be in a minority by 2020. As the only bank operating digital wallets in five countries around the world, we are at the forefront of the major transformation from plastic to mobile.”
While the BBVA wallet does not have the cache of Apple Pay or some of the other international mobile payment solutions coming or just launching in the market, it has shown some success in different markets. With Apple Pay and others not yet available in some of BBVA’s key markets, the bank has an opportunity to shore up its position and be a mobile payment leader in the years ahead.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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