BBVA Conquers Mexico While It Wrestles Elsewhere
Mexico's Net Interest Income now dominates BBVA, growing as Spain's declined since 2006.
BBVA has found solid ground in Mexico, despite an ultra-competitive and ever-changing banking landscape. Actually, “solid ground” is an understatement; the company has thrived as the largest banking institution in the country, with roughly $143B in total assets.
The bank has had luck penetrating the Mexican market, which is still in its infancy. Reports vary widely, but the lowest estimate we've found of unbanked Mexicans is 40M in 2021 — a third of the population.
BBVA has maintained a solid customer experience, showing off the highest NPS in the country. It allegedly innovated with the first mobile banking app in 2010 and has rolled out some cool features you may not see in even the top US bank branches. A simple example that's very handy to the average Mexican illustrates this: A BBVA customer can pay anyone, even if they don't have a BBVA account with cash, through a mobile-generated code in one of the bank's ATMs.
BBVA has struggled with growth in other regions, including its Spanish homeland. The Spain segment had a lower net interest income (its income after debt and interest deductions) in 2022 than it did in 2006.
Elsewhere in the Americas, BBVA has had several market retreats. It was competed out of the US by more prominent players and sold its division in the country to PNC for $11.6B. It left its Chilean division in the hands of Scotiabank for $2.2B just three years earlier.
The company will likely continue to bet on Mexico, and its bold fintech acquisitions indicate it's ready for the new digital era. It bought Mexico's OpenPay in 2018 and acquired a significant stake in Brazilian neobank Neon.