On Wednesday, March 4, BBVA organised an event in Zürich about digitalization and sustainability.

The Hotel Bar Au Lac in Zurich, where BBVA in Switzerland had organized numerous events with its clients in the past, was the enclave chosen for the London-based structured product colleagues and it was led by Daniel Hernandez, Head of e-connectivity sales at BBVA, who updated us on the digitalization they are carrying out on the structured products contracting platform. Switzerland has been chosen at this time due to his international relevance for the private banking industry.

The event had several speakers from financial and fintech industries. BBVA teams from Client Solutions, Business Process Engineering and Investment & Markets actively participated in all panels and discussions.

The importance of digitalization in the financial field

The first-panel was reserved for the derivatives market. ISDA provides secure and efficient tools with which it intends to help all users of derivatives to manage risk.

ISDA’s flagship is the Common Domain Model (CDM), which unifies legal interpretations to implement them in the participants, and in this way mitigate the risk of the regulations being misapplied. With this model, it seeks to promote transparency and harmonisation between regulators and market participants, helping to standardise the industry.

CDM will be published in as many languages as possible and will reduce costs, which are associated with the manual processes that have had to be managed up until now (confirming trades, collateral management, reporting to regulars, etc.)

Sustainable investments

The second panel was dedicated to the correlation between, on the one hand, the integration of sustainable investment processes and, on the other, the increase in profits and the decrease in risk.

For instance, it was also described as the methodology that MSCI follows when making its ESG -Environmental, Social and Governance- rating. This rating currently assesses around 6,500 companies and has a scale from AAA to CCC.

BBVA remains committed to socially responsible investment as well as digitalization

On the ESG -Environmental, Social and Governance- side, BBVA in the medium term will have a range of specific funds, which can be reported through its advisor.

Regarding digitalization, we consider it a fundamental pillar that benefits our clients’ user experience, allowing us to offer more personalized and more agile solutions and being able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the market.