BBVA Group chief executive Onur Genç told investors at Bank of America’s 31st Annual Financials CEO Conference that the Spanish bank’s return on tangible equity (ROTE) reached 22.2% in the first half of the year, matching the 2025‑2028 plan’s 22% target. The bank’s lending book has grown 62% since the start of 2021, far outpacing the 13% average growth of the 15 largest European banks that exclude BBVA.
Dividends per share are set to rise from €0.31 in 2021 to €0.92 in 2025, marking a three‑fold increase and sustaining a 36‑year dividend‑payment streak with four consecutive raises, yielding about 3.0% today. Annual technology spending remains around €4.5 billion, supporting a unified digital platform used by 81 million customers across Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Spain.
In Mexico, BBVA is the country’s largest profit contributor and financial institution, delivering a return on equity of roughly 25%. The bank holds a 26% overall market share, 40% of payroll‑related lending and 35% of acquiring. It added 4.7 million new customers in 2024, 84% of whom signed up through pure digital channels. BBVA operates 15,000 ATMs locally. The Mexican market is also seeing a 16% rise in exports to the United States in the first seven months of 2024 and a modest 2% increase in foreign direct investment in the first half of the year.
In Spain, loan growth was 7% and BBVA captured an additional 250 basis points of enterprise‑loan market share and 260 basis points of consumer‑loan share over the past five years, bringing its lending share to 14% and payroll and acquiring shares to 17% each. Return on equity stayed above 20% as the Spanish economy is projected to grow 2.4% in 2024, with household and corporate leverage roughly half of 2010 levels. The bank is benefitting from €80 billion of NextGenerationEU funds allocated over three years.
Turning to Turkey, Genç said the bank no longer expects the country to exit hyperinflation accounting by 2028. Inflation is now forecast at 30%, up from 25% earlier in the year, and the central bank’s policy rate is projected at 36%, up from 32%. BBVA guided net profit in Turkey to about €1 billion, with a downside bias, while noting that each 1% rise in inflation or devaluation could cut profits by €15‑20 million and each 1% increase in interest rates could shave €40 million from earnings.
Overall, BBVA’s strategy combines robust profitability, aggressive digital customer acquisition and continued shareholder returns, while monitoring macro‑economic pressures in key markets.
