BBVA - Press Room

 

• “BBVA launched its Innovation and Transformation Plan with the goal of levering the opportunities arising from technology across the entire value chain”
• “Information technologies also enable a transformation of the retail model by integrating the physical and virtual banking worlds”
• “BBVA’s strategic focus on technology and innovation is paying off: it is the most profitable bank in its benchmark peer group”

BBVA’s chief operating officer, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, today affirmed that although technology is a strategic lever, “the true source of competitive advantage is the ability to gear the business model to information technologies”. During a speech given during the VI Club Málaga Valley e-27 Presidents’ Meeting held in Malaga itself, Mr. Goirigolzarri underscored that at an entity such as BBVA the use of IT enables it get to know its customers better, to tailor its products and services to their needs, namely by providing them with useful and user-friendly solutions, as well as to generate business more profitably. Along these lines, he also highlighted that information technologies also drive transformation of the retail model by combining in-person and remote distribution channels, i.e., integrating the physical and virtual banking worlds.

José Ignacio Goirigolzarri began his speech referring to the radical changes shaping consumer behaviour in recent years: demand is more polarized, customers have readier access to information and greater opportunities for engagement, they are looking for new distribution and communications channels and have access to new forms of entertainment and interactivity. According to Mr. Goirigolzarri, “the birth of this ‘new consumer’ is largely the outcome of rapid technological progress, fundamentally derived from the digitalization of information and the connectivity phenomenon. These changes logically have ramifications for the financial sector”.

Nonetheless, BBVA’s chief operating officer maintains that “although technology is a strategic lever, what truly creates a competitive edge is not the technology itself but rather the ability to gear the business model to information technologies”.

Guided by precisely this vision and with the goal of creating value, BBVA launched its Innovation and Transformation Plan in 2007. “This plan was devised to enable us to capitalize on all the opportunities enabled by technology throughout the value chain: customer knowledge, product, operations and distribution”, said José Ignacio Goirigolzarri.

He went on to analyze each of these opportunities. Firstly he remarked that technology enables the mechanization of the creation of customer knowledge, using tools such as the social trend watcher, based on over 3,000 personal interviews every six months in Spain and Mexico, or the online brand tracker. Moreover, the in-house use of tools and techniques such as the text & learn tool, the micro-segmentation models, data mining applications and advanced trend trackers help to get to know customers better.

More in-depth familiarity with customer habits in turn enables the bank to optimize marketing management opportunities by using far more advanced and powerful tools and methodologies such as online recommendation engines (MyStrands) and the online and multichannel CRM solutions.

Valuable services

Another important enabling factor in the use of IT at BBVA is the ability to broaden and upgrade the product range through product automation, advanced management of the risk reward tradeoff, as well as bundling and personalization solutions. And not just this, but also the scope to go beyond the merely financial, such as the information aggregator, ‘Tú Cuentas’ (You matter). “Information technologies enable us to develop services related with the goal of deepening ties with our customers by offering them value added services, built on information as the raw material and technology as the enabler”, said José Ignacio Goirigolzarri.

Along these lines, he remarked that technology can boost efficiency levels, automating back and middle office functions, raising customer service standards and developing front office tools. “All this”, he said, “raises service standards and frees up more resources for sales tasks”. He recalled that in Malaga BBVA had set up OP Plus, a company that integrates and manages various processes and operations of the Group’s business units.

Lastly, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri noted that information technologies also enable development of distribution models, raising the bar in sales and marketing processes by combining in-person and remote channels, heading towards a model in which the physical and virtual banking worlds will be seamlessly integrated. “In short”, he concluded, “technology is written in the BBVA Group’s DNA as a key lever of our sales and marketing strategy and guided by the overriding goal of making our customers’ lives easier. In addition, this strategic focus on technology and innovation is paying off: at year-end 2008, BBVA was the most efficient and most profitable bank among its benchmark group of European peers”.