European bank aspires transformation to start-up fintech…

The global digital banking trend continues as BBVA, Spain’s second largest bank has started work on transforming the way it does business. In an article in The Australian and contributed by The Economist, this bank is reinventing itself as a digital business. ” This lender wants to be as nimble as a fintech start up.”  The change team began quarterly planning sessions about three years ago in its Mexican subsidiary.

Western Banks have to this point been resilient to the digital disruption that has ended retailing, the taxi and hotel trades and they know they cannot be complacent. They are spending billions on technology and are both buying and allying with fintechs.

Francisco Gonzales BBVA’s executive chairman, ” Sooner or later the Giants of the Internet, Amazon, Facebook and Google will be our main rivals. The digital world does not allow many competitors. In 20 year’s time the ranks of the bank’s worldwide could be reduced by thousands, which will need scale to survive. At the end of the day we won’t be a bank anymore, but a digital house.”

The chief executives believe that BBVA’s  glowing wealth of information about its customers, plus the trust that comes from lending their money, gives it an advantage over the tech giants. ” Even if people rarely visit branches, they interact with the bank more often on smart phones.”        

Hayley James.