Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A.

What does BBVA own?

The group owns BBVA México outright, approximately 85 percent of Garanti BBVA in Turkey, banking subsidiaries across South America, plus asset management and insurance operations. Its businesses operate across more than 25 countries under the unified BBVA brand.

Is BBVA publicly traded?

Yes. BBVA trades on the Bolsa de Madrid under BBVA and on the NYSE through American depositary receipts also under BBVA. It is a member of the IBEX 35 index.

Who founded BBVA?

No individual founded modern BBVA; it is a 1999 merger entity. Its predecessor Banco de Bilbao was founded in Bilbao in 1857, and the name combined after successive mergers including Argentaria.

Where is BBVA headquartered?

The bank is headquartered at La Vela tower, Ciudad BBVA, in Madrid, Spain. It relocated its registered office from Bilbao to Madrid in 2019, reflecting the group's center of gravity.

How many brands does BBVA own?

BBVA operates essentially one global brand, with Garanti BBVA retaining co-branding in Turkey. Insurance and asset management arms carry the BBVA name in each market.

Who owns BBVA?

Public shareholders own the bank, with international institutional investors holding the largest stakes. No controlling shareholder, government, or founding family exercises control.

Did BBVA buy Sabadell?

No. BBVA's unsolicited all-stock offer for Banco Sabadell, announced April 2024, failed to reach the acceptance threshold in October 2025 and was withdrawn. BBVA subsequently launched a €3.9 billion share buyback.

BBVA's roots reach to 1857, when the Banco de Bilbao was founded in the Basque city of Bilbao. That bank merged with Banco de Vizcaya in 1988 to form Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, then combined with state-owned Argentaria in 1999 to create Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, the entity that operates today.

The merged bank spent the 2000s building its international franchise. It expanded aggressively in Latin America, acquiring banks across Mexico, South America, and the US Sun Belt, and entered Turkey by taking a stake in Garanti Bank in 2011. The Mexican acquisition of Bancomer, completed in the early 2000s, proved transformative: BBVA México grew into the country's dominant bank and eventually the group's largest profit contributor.

The 2010s brought a digital transformation that became the bank's strategic identity. Under chair Francisco González, BBVA invested heavily in mobile banking, data analytics, and its digital-only brand in the US, positioning itself as the most digitally advanced large European bank. It consolidated its Turkish holding to 85 percent of Garanti BBVA in 2022.

The defining event of the 2020s was the Sabadell pursuit. In April 2024 BBVA announced an unsolicited all-stock offer for Banco Sabadell valued initially around €12 billion, a deal that would have created a Spanish banking giant. The bid faced government opposition, antitrust conditions imposed by Spanish regulators, and Sabadell shareholder resistance. In October 2025 the offer failed to reach acceptance thresholds and BBVA withdrew, announcing a €3.9 billion buyback instead.

Fiscal 2025, unaffected by the deal's failure, produced record results: net attributable profit of €10.511 billion, up 10 percent, gross income of €36.931 billion, and a CET1 ratio around 13 percent. Mexico generated more than half of profit, with Spain contributing strongly on credit growth and margins.

BBVA has made sustainability a strategic pillar, committing to channel €700 billion into sustainable business through 2029, an increase from an earlier €300 billion target. The bank publishes detailed sustainability reporting aligned with EU frameworks and is a founding member of the UN Net-Zero Banking Alliance, though it withdrew in 2024 alongside many global banks amid US political pressure.

The bank reports progress against sector decarbonization targets for its lending book and offers sustainable financing products across markets. Its sustainability positioning is a corporate strategy with disclosed targets rather than third-party product certifications. Community investment through the BBVA Foundation and Microfinance Foundation supports social programs in operating markets.

BBVA has received consistent recognition including Euromoney's awards for best bank in Mexico and Latin America, and multiple years of recognition as a leading sustainable bank by finance publications. Its digital banking platform has been ranked among the world's best by Forrester and other evaluators, and it was named the most sustainable bank in Europe by industry rankings in recent years.

The bank's most significant legal matter is the Cenyt case, a long-running Spanish investigation into alleged corporate espionage commissioned from 2004 to 2017 under former chair Francisco González. A court ordered BBVA itself to stand trial in 2024 as a corporate defendant, a rare escalation, though proceedings continued through 2025 and 2026 without final resolution.

The failed Sabadell bid generated political controversy in Spain, with the government imposing conditions including restrictions on branch closures and job cuts. The episode exposed friction between BBVA's ambitions and Spanish political resistance to banking consolidation.

In Turkey, Garanti BBVA's operations face the standard regulatory scrutiny of a market undergoing economic volatility. Across its footprint, the bank carries the AML and conduct obligations of a global institution without a defining enforcement event on the scale of peers' scandals.