The EFMA meeting brought together for two days representatives of global banking and the sector ‘fintech’ with disruptive products, to show how banks are integrating innovative solutions and new business models in their strategy, the result of collaboration with different startups.
David Martín, in his panel with Laurent Herbillon, director of Open Innovation at BNP Paribas, explained the role of BBVA’s open innovation area as a global platform that “connects ‘fintechs’ and ‘startups’ with the bank.” In his presentation, he remarked that “what makes our initiatives special is that they generate a mutual benefit between BBVA and the new companies that are committed to the entity,” he added.
BBVA Open Innovation is present in nine countries
The ‘fintech’ community is in a moment of expansion and a global reach is necessary to reach the best and most innovative startups, for this reason BBVA has Open Innovation teams in nine of the countries where it is present. “We are a global company and, therefore, we want to create a global perspective. Our mission is to connect and collaborate with the ‘fintech’ community to bring the best experiences to customers, “explained BBVA’s ecosystem collider.
The initiatives carried out by the bank to approach and promote growth and collaboration with the world ‘fintech’ are very diverse. Among them, David Martín emphasizes, especially, the program ‘Fast Track’: “It is one of our most important bets, a program that streamlines the processes between BBVA and the ‘startups’. For three or four days both parties work to define solutions that improve products and services aimed at customers”.
Likewise, Martín highlighted during the event other initiatives of great importance within the ‘fintech’ ecosystem carried out by BBVA, such as the BBVA Open Summit, “an event of great importance for the ecosystem where the most important stakeholders of the sector”.
“BBVA Open Talent is an opportunity that we give to the ‘fintech’ to tell us their story”
With 11 years of history, he also wanted to highlight the importance of BBVA Open Talent, “the fintech competition in the world”. The program seeks “the best ‘startups’ from this sector in” seed phase “with the aim of helping the winners in their transformation and development to become successful companies.
Finally, he has discovered where “more love stories between BBVA and the world ‘fintech'” are born: in the digital platform BBVA Open Marketplace, a meeting place between the bank and the ‘startups’ are “.
A love story between the bank and the ‘fintech’ sector
In line with the relationship between BBVA and the ‘fintech’, Itir Aydogan, director of Digital Strategy at Garanti Bank, participant in another panel of the event, described how the bonds between the bank and the ‘fintech’ Moneymo were forged.
This ‘startup’ won Open Talent 2018 Turkey and, there, began an intense relationship with the bank, through its subsidiary in the country, Garanti. For Aydogan, “BBVA Open Talent is an opportunity that we give to the ‘fintech’ to tell us their story. And, in the case, Moneymo’s story fitted us very well from the beginning”.
Moneymo allows you to pay for any product or service that contains the ‘QR’ code provided by them, just by entering the bank ‘app’. “We had the same dream, change the behavior of consumers, introduce a new form of payment in a place where cash is still used a lot,” concluded the director of Digital Strategy at Garanti.
Also published on Medium.