Banking firm BBVA USA partners with Google

This collaboration underscores BBVA’s strategy to continue organically growing the bank throughout the U.S., even as it deepens its transformation and capitalizes on the innovations that have changed the way it does business.“

When we launched our new 5-year strategic plan in January, we said that two key pillars were to reach more customers with our digital offerings and use our expertise in finance, digital and innovation to help them improve their financial health,” said BBVA USA President and CEO Javier Rodríguez Soler. “This collaboration with Google is fully aligned with this effort – even more so in today’s world where the ability to conduct your financial life in a digital manner, from account opening to transacting to understanding financial health, is an imperative.”

When launched in 2021, the co-branded, FDIC-insured digital account will be offered via Google Pay and built on top of the bank’s existing infrastructure. Google will provide the front-end, intuitive user experiences and financial insights.

“Google is excited to work with BBVA USA in enabling a digital experience that is equitable for all and meets the evolving needs of a new generation of customers,” said Felix Lin, vice president of Payments Ecosystems at Google. “We believe that we can use our technology expertise to benefit users, banks and the entire financial ecosystem.”

For BBVA, the collaboration was made possible thanks to its decades-long focus on digital transformation and innovation, specifically its open banking initiative, BBVA Open Platform, that enables the bank and its partners to acquire and engage customers by embedding financial products that create powerful consumer value propositions. BBVA Open Platform is a comprehensive developer platform that provides a suite of banking and payments services in the U.S. backed by a global financial institution.

“BBVA has focused for decades on how it could use digital to advance the financial industry, and in so doing, create more and better opportunities for customers to manage their financial health,” Rodriguez Soler said. “Collaborations with companies like Google represent the future of banking. Consumers end up the true winners when finance and big tech work together for their benefit.”

The new accounts will be available in 2021.