“Developing better solutions for customers through technology,” is one of the goals of BBVA. And the bank is managing to achieve it," CEO Carlos Torres Vila told investors at the presentation of BBVA's Q2 results.

The digitisation of BBVA is achieving very tangible results, he says, such as the “significant volume” of sales through digital channels, which represent 22% of the total figure.

A good example of the extent of the BBVA’s digital transformation is the number of customers who interact with the bank through digital channels, says Torres Vila. At the end of June, they numbered nearly 20 million, an increase of 22% in the year.

Almost 14.5 million of these are mobile phone customers, whose numbers grew 42%. “We have reached a turning point, in which more than 50% of the customers are digital in Chile, Venezuela and Turkey,” the CEO says.

The positive trend towards digital is prevalent in all of the bank's major markets, he adds, pointing out that across the Group, practically “one in four units are sold through digital channels.” For example, in Spain, in the first six months of the year, BBVA sold as many units over digital channels as it did in all of 2016.

Torres Vila singled out some of the new functionalities that the bank launched during the quarter, including Star Seguros in Spain, a product that allows the customer to group his/her insurance policies together; BBVA Plan - Financial Goals, in Mexico, which allows the customer to save in order to reach specific goals; in the United States, the option for non-customers to obtain loans digitally; and in Turkey, MIA, an assistant that allows customers to speak to the application, through artificial intelligence.