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Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) is one of the biggest financial institutions on the planet. Founded in 1857 in Bilbao, Spain, BBVA still has an active presence in its homeland of Spain, as well as several Latin American nations, North America, Romania and Turkey.

As the second biggest bank in Spain behind Banco Santander, BBVA is a prominent part of the ESP35 and the EU Stocks EU Stocks 50. It’s available to trade on three stock exchanges – the Madrid, New York and Mexican stock exchanges.

As of December 2018, BBVA’s combined assets totalled €676 billion, but this has diminished slightly in recent years to €662.68 billion by the end of 2021. The BBVA brand occurred in 1988 following a merger between Banco de Bilbao and Banco de Vizcaya. Three years later, this bank merged with Argentaria, the new public bank of the Spanish government headed by Felipe Gonzalez, becoming the BBVA brand we know today.

The price of BBVA stock was exceptionally volatile in the early 2000s. In March 2002, BBVA shares were worth more than €801 apiece but dipped to €430 in October of the same year. By December 2003, BBVA shares were down as low as €9.58, and the share price has traded within a very tight range ever since.

Through 2022, the BBVA share price closed the year largely flat, despite posting a 46% rise in its net attributable profit to €4.84 billion. In the last five years to January 2023, it has fallen over 13%. Some investors look to banks like BBVA for passive income thanks to its dividend yields. Its net tangible book value plus dividends hit €7.6 per share in 2022, while an interim dividend of €0.12 per share was also agreed upon for shareholders.

Unsurprisingly, BBVA’s number-one competitor is Spain’s leading banking institution, Banco Santander. This company has been providing retail and commercial banking services for over 150 years. Headquartered in Boadilla del Monte, Santander has almost double the size of BBVA’s workforce worldwide, alongside a company valuation of $57 billion.

BBVA has a string of additional banking competitors elsewhere in Europe, namely HSBC and Barclays. HSBC Holdings started in Hong Kong but is now headquartered in London. It carries a valuation of $144.2 billion which dwarfs all other European banking firms. London-based Barclays is another major banking giant, with a global workforce of almost 89,000.