The bank revealed how the digital upgrades it has been pursuing for several years now has translated into the strong growth it has seen in customer numbers.

BBVA has achieved a critical milestone in its drive towards digital banking after passing the 50 percent mobile banking tipping point for customers. The news means more than half of BBVA’s active customers worldwide now engage with the bank via mobile devices, and through mobile channels like its world-leading mobile banking app.

For example, the bank highlighted how it has seen its number of active customers grow during the past four years from 47.5 million to more than 56.3 million today.

Much of that growth has also been seen in digital customers, with the number more than doubling in the same period, from 15.3 million in 2015 to in excess of 32.1 million today.

A deeper dive into the figures also shows the critical importance mobile now plays in supporting BBVA’s customers’ banking requirements.

For instance, if you take that 32.1 million figure and look at where those digital customers are logging into their bank accounts from, you find that - across the group - around 67 percent of people are only logging in through mobile devices, with a further 23.7 percent using a mix of mobile and web - accounting for more than 29m customers in total.

That means less than 10 percent - or 3m - now only use non-mobile means to access the bank.

Some countries are significantly higher, with Turkey having 73.1 percent of users only using mobile, almost 20 percent a mix, and just 7 percent non-mobile only. Mexico tops the group on this, with almost 87.5 percent mobile only, 7.5 percent a mix and less than 5 percent non-mobile only.

Spain’s figures, meanwhile, stand at 56.8 percent mobile only, 33 percent mix and just over 10 percent non-mobile.

Equally, with BBVA’s DIY (do it yourself) figure now standing above 82 percent the same increasing level of digital engagement is being seen in what customers do when they visit the bank’s digital channels.

For example, if you look at the amount of time people are spending on the BBVA app per visit, you can also see that metric growing year on year. In Spain, customers now spend on average 2.4 mins looking at their finances each time they log in, up from 1.1min a year ago. In Colombia the figures are 7.7mins, up from 6.5mins 12 months ago.

This then translates into what people are doing in their accounts too. In simple terms, in December 2018, 44.6 percent of the time people spent online with BBVA was on the home page, where basic information about their account can be seen. A further 37 percent was spent getting insights on their finances, 7 percent was spent making transactions, and 5 percent looking at other products and services.

Twelve months later and that time on the homepage had dropped to 38 percent, while getting insights from their finances had grown to almost 44.5 percent of people’s time, while looking at products and services had increased by 1 percentage point to 6 percent, and transactions had stayed around the same.

Commenting, BBVA’s Global Head of Client Solutions, David Puente, said: “As BBVA announced last week, one of our key strategic priorities is to do more to support customers to improve their financial health”.

Mobile is now by far the preferred option for BBVA's digital customers

The growth in usage in mobile banking across BBVA is continuing at pace, as new statistics from BBVA today show.

“What we are seeing very clearly is that as we make more services, information and crucially personal insights available to people on our digital platforms, customers are looking at these things more and more to help them make better decisions about their money”.

“And that really is one of our core goals - to use the human experience and technological tools we have in the bank, coupled with increasingly clever and personal data analysis, to support people to achieve their financial ambitions - whether it is a long-term goal, or managing their day-to-day lives.”

Helping to demonstrate the validity of that approach even further, and the advocacy it brings, BBVA now has the number one Net Promoter Score in five of its operating countries - Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Peru - compared to its peer group. And it is placed second in two others - Turkey and Uruguay.