Speaking at the World Mobile Conference in Barcelona, BBVAchairman Francisco González has outlined his future for the financialinstitution, suggesting that its future lies not as a bank but as a softwarecompany in order to compete with organizations like Apple, Samsung, Google andAmazon.
At the conference, BBVA chairman Francisco González saidthat “The mobile has emerged as the driving force for disruptive innovation inbanking. There is a threat element which I like because banking needscompetitors. We need to be more efficient but we can also collaborate withthem.”
According to González, the number of BBVA mobile customershas increased 14-fold in three years and totaled 4.3 million at the end of 2014.Furthermore, the BBVA mobile payments application (BBVA Wallet) has alreadyover 450,000 downloads in Spain and will be soon deployed in Mexico, the US andChile and according to the chairman, the wallet is the most-used cloud-basedNFC payment app in the world.
The revelation that one of the leading banks in Europe andSouth America sees its future as a software company and not a bank issignificant as it highlights the blurring of lines between traditional paymentservice providers and new alternative banking and payment providers. While theretail banking arm of BBVA will likely continue in one form or another, theshift to mobile demonstrates how much this new channel has altered the bankingand payment landscape.
Overview by Tristan-Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments for Mercator Advisory Group
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