BBVA has reached over three million mobile customers in Spain, with product sales via the smartphone now surpassing online applications from the bank's Website.
The Spanish bank says interactions via the mobile app have seen a 135% increase over the course of the past year, rising from 23.8 million in May 2016 to 56 million in May 2017. Mobile app subscribers have grown by 30% over the past seven months, continuing the strong momentum that has been in place since December 2015, when the bank had 1.9 million mobile customers.
The data complements figures released by the bank in June, that chalked up nearly a million product sales worldwide through purely digital channels, representing 22% of all sales for the year. Mobile is at the forefront across the group's international operations, with 14.5 million of the bank's customers using the mobile channel.
In November last year, BBVA took advantage of updated Spanish legislation on remote sales and rolled out a new mobile onboarding service that enables customers to open an account with just a photo ID and a selfie. The bank says this functionality is now responsible for 18% of the new monthly customer registrations via Website and mobile phone.
According to Gonzalo Rodriguez, head of digital transformation at BBVA Spain, the key to the increased use of digital channels “is due to the constant updating of our mobile channels, in order to continue offering products and services that are relevant for our customers. This development never stops and our customers’ new needs oblige us to continue working on new functionalities.”