Active
This profile is actively maintained
Active
This profile is actively maintainedWebsite | https://www.bbva.com/en/ |
Headquarters |
C. Sauceda, 28
28050 Madrid
Spain
|
CEO/chair |
Onur Genç CEO |
Supervisor | |
Ownership |
listed on Bolsa de Madrid, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores & NYSE
BBVA's shareholder structure can be accessed here. |
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), is a multinational Spanish banking group. It was formed in 1999 from a merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, founded in 1857, and Argentaria. It provides financial services in over 30 countries. The group has a leading position in the Spanish market, where it began operating over 150 years ago. It also has franchises in South America, where it is the main financial institution in Mexico. It is one of the 15 biggest banks in the United States, where it has a franchise in the Sunbelt region. In March 2017 BBVA acquired a 49.85% ownership of GarantiBank, Turkey.
BBVA's most important sustainability commitments can be found at the website sections listed below.
BBVA is linked to a number of companies and projects that BankTrack considers controversial (so called Dodgy Deals), e.g. as a current or past financier or through an expression of interest. The profiles below provide more details on the nature of BBVA's link to these deals.
Banks and Climate
The 2022 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that BBVA provided US$ 26.27 in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021. Find further details on BBVA fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in the Coal Policy Tracker and Oil and Gas Policy Tool. Find further details on their assessment of BBVA's fossil fuel policy below.
Banks and Human Rights
BankTrack assessed BBVA in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 7.5 points out of 14 and was ranked as a front runner. In addition, BBVA scored 0.3 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.
Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
Banks and Nature
BBVA’s policies for forest-risk sectors (beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber and timber) have been assessed by the Forests & Finance coalition, achieving an overall score of 5.6 out of 10 and ranking it as a front runner. BBVA achieved a score of 3 out of 10 specifically for its policies related to the beef sector and 6.1 out of 10 for its policies related to the palm oil sector. Between 2016 and 2022, BBVA provided USD 678 million in credit to companies operating in these forest-risk sectors.
BankTrack has also assessed BBVA’s policies related to the wood biomass sector and found that biomass is not mentioned in its policies and no safeguards or exclusions are in place for wood biomass. For more information, see the links below.
Forest & Finance Policy Assessment 2022: Overall scores
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its policies. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Forest & Finance Policy Assessment 2022: Beef
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its beef policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Forest & Finance Policy Assessment 2022: Palm Oil
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its palm oil policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Tracking the Net Zero Banking Alliance
BBVA is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker.