Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), is a multinational Spanish banking group. It was formed in 1999 from a merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and Argentaria.
BBVA is the second largest bank in Spain and 7th largest financial institution in the Western world with a market capitalization of over 61 billion €. The bank has recently focused on overseas expansion, and now operates in 40 countries. Like many other Spanish companies, it enjoys a dominant position in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.
ownership
listed on BME Spanish Exchanges, NYSE Euronext
Publicly listed company
headquarters
Plaza San Nicolás, 4
48005 Bilbao
Spain
position top 1000 the Banker
In million US$. Ranking according to Tier 1 capital, as per definition Bank of International Settlements (BIS)
The CDP impels organisations to record their carbon footprint in daily activities. Encouraging enterprises to calculate and disclose their carbon impact, this initiative highlights the challenge for financial institutions to determine exactly how much carbon output can be attributed to financing.
Voluntary framework to guide the finance sector in tackling the challenge of climate change. They address the management of operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and provide direction on managing climate change in research activities; asset management; retail banking; insurance & re-insurance; corporate banking; investment banking & markets; project finance.
The EPs are a set of guidelines, based upon the Performance Standards and guidelines from the IFC, the World Bank's private sector lending arm for private banks to asesses and mitigate risks in project finance. Banks use the Principles to guide internal operating procedures for transaction for specific projects. Although the EPs are an important step to raise overall standards of financiers and projects in the developing world, they currently fall short on transparency and governance requirements.
The verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining is supported by the EITI. Financial institutions can participate and encourage resource-rich countries to support the initiative that aims to defeat poverty, corruption and conflict caused by weak transparency and accountability.
As the name suggests, the GRI aims to standardise good practice in transparency. GRI provides companies with guidelines to organise their annual report with reporting indices and standards addressing environmental, social and economic issues that business ought to address when telling the world about its performance.
The UN Global Compact is a set of ten principles that companies may sign voluntarily. Signatories promise to avoid complicity in human rights violations, adhere to labour standards, protect the environment and avoid corruption. The G8 countries urge companies to participate in this initiative, and with over 2900 companies signing up, the Global Compact has momentum. A voluntary and network based framework, the Global Compact actively promotes peer review and stakeholder participation.
UNEP is the 'voice of the environment' for the United Nations system, promoting international cooperation in the field of the environment. Issues concerning the financial community are addressed by the UNEP Finance Initiative which promotes investment in clean and renewable energy by financial institutions and other investors. Financial insititutions wishing to join must sign one of two Statements (for financial institutions and a separate one for the insurance industry).
UNPRI is a set of six principles direct institutional investors may adopt to consider environmental, social and corporate governance issues when investing. Voluntary and aspirational in nature, UNPRI has since its inception in 2006 attracted 200 signatories, representing US$8 trillion worth of investments.
Since the turn of the century a group of twelve banks known as the Wolfsberg Group have collaborated to improve ethical standards. The principles provide guidance on money laundering, corruption and the financing of terrorism. They have been produced to address deficiencies in areas 'yet to be fully articulated by lawmakers or regulators'.
Cluster munitions pose a serious threat to civilian populations during and after a conflict. Cluster munitions are designed to blanket a large area containing one or more…
The 1,200 MW Ilisu dam project is planned on the Tigris River in Southeast Turkey, some 50 km away from the border with Syria and Iraq. A 1,800 m-long wall will form a 313…
HidroAysén - owned by European company Endesa and Chilean company Colbun - plans to dam two of Chile's most powerful and pristine rivers, the Baker and Pascua Rivers.…
Peru's Camisea gas project was designed to exploit an enormous gas field in the Amazonian region. It consists of 3 components: exploration and extraction at four drilling…
BankTrack has identified controversial issues
with the companies listed below that require attention from BBVA.
E.on
E.ON is a German electricity company headquartered in Düsseldorf and is another of big beasts of energy production. E.ON operates along the entire value chain of power…
As Europe's second largest electricity generator and one of Europe's five leading gas and electricity companies, this German utility is another of energy and gas production's…
Letter to BankTrack as a response to BT letter of February 11, 2010
Mar 29, 2010 | Equator Principles Financial Insititutions, Citi
The first response ever to one of the letters BankTrack sent to the Equator Principles Financial Insititutions. It is a response to the BankTrack follow up letter after the meeting in Zuerich, February 4.
Using the 2011 Global Investor Statement on Climate Change, investors will advocate for investment grade climate change and energy policies at the national and international level.
International website developed by BankTrack, CRBM, Les Amis de la Terre, Netwerk Vlaanderen, Platform, Setem and Urgewald.
Information in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish.
SETEM's web site 'Finanzas Eticas' about Ethical and Non-Ethical finance in Spain & Europe, currently in Spanish but soon to be available in English also.
