WEBWIRE – Monday, February 7, 2022

The strategic alliance between the two entities has enabled the integration of Google Cloud into BBVA’s technology platform. This collaboration is helping the bank reduce the time it takes to launch digital products, better detect cyber threats, make sustainability one of its core capabilities, and compete with digital fintechs.

This is according to a study published by Google, which analyzes the success of the use of its Cloud products in the bank, which it describes as having “transformed itself into a digital company that challenges the ‘status quo’ of the financial sector”. Google is considered by BBVA as “an ally”, as defined by Iván Gómez, Senior Manager of Supplier Strategy at BBVA. “We work with the mentality of developing a final product and creating joint roadmaps,” he adds.

The financial institution saw the cloud as an opportunity to gain the agility needed to anticipate the needs of its customers, while reducing its carbon footprint so as to become an environmentally sustainable business – all of which was driven by innovation. “Our relationship with Google Cloud helps us focus on the most important parts of a transformation: putting our customers at the center of the business, using the best tools available and bringing our people along that path as well,” explains Juan Calatrava, Head of IT Strategy, Deployment and Regulations at BBVA.

It is a collaboration that began in 2012 with an intense journey towards cloud migration and has allowed us to deepen our knowledge in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Based on these new learnings, the bank is now focusing its efforts on creating applications that help improve the financial health of its customers. In this way, Google products such as BigQuery are assisting BBVA in analyzing large amounts of data to measure the real impact the pandemic has had on consumer behavior. Or Cloud SQL, a service that allows BBVA to give project leaders and solution architects a way to create resources in a secure, controlled and flexible way to easily tailor resources.

Combating cybercrime

A year ago, BBVA became the first European bank to use Chronicle, Google Cloud’s cybersecurity analytics platform. Targeted by cybercriminals, the bank needed a cloud-native security platform capable of supporting its global business. The bank’s strategy with Chronicle is to make it the main engine to better detect threats, classify and prioritize events according to their impact or criticality, and to be able to respond more quickly. This is a mutually advantageous relationship in which BBVA benefits from the experience of Google’s engineers, while the technology company acquires valuable feedback from a veteran bank in the field of cybersecurity.

In addition to better shielding itself against increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats, BBVA is enhancing the employee experience with productivity tools that create a better work environment. In particular, Google Workspace was indispensable at the onset of the pandemic when Google Meet usage skyrocketed by 1,800% and allowed workers to stay connected remotely.

From digital bank to digital enterprise

In terms of digital channel development, BBVA is leveraging Google’s software engineering to deliver products to customers faster. The bank manages to develop new services in just nine months when the industry average is two years. Google Cloud is enabling BBVA to acquire the core capabilities to meet its strategic objectives, as well as sending a powerful message to the market about how to meet the needs of 21st century banking.