SKN | BBVA Launches New Spain Growth Phase With AI, Wealth and Customer Expansion at the Core

Key Takeaways:

• BBVA is entering a new growth phase in Spain focused on expanding its customer base, deepening primary relationships and increasing exposure to higher-value businesses including enterprise banking, insurance and Global Wealth.
• Artificial intelligence is positioned as the central accelerator, supporting process automation, personalized services, specialized advice and greater efficiency across customer segments.
• Global Wealth and insurance provide significant expansion opportunities, with BBVA seeking to increase insurance penetration and extend AI-enabled advisory capabilities across its 201,000 private banking and wealth management clients in Spain.

BBVA Seeks Growth Through Deeper Customer Relationships

BBVA is moving into a new strategic phase in Spain after years of transforming its business model and strengthening customer relationships. The bank’s country manager in Spain, Peio Belausteguigoitia, said the next stage will center on three priorities: acquiring more customers, increasing the depth of existing relationships and expanding higher-value businesses.

Customer acquisition has already accelerated. In 2025, BBVA added 962,000 retail customers and 68,000 business customers in Spain, representing approximately twice and 1.3 times, respectively, the acquisition rates recorded in 2019. Importantly, 70% of newly acquired customers made BBVA their primary bank within six months.

The economics of primary relationships provide a significant incentive for further development. BBVA reports that revenue generated by a primary customer increases 3.7-fold on average over five years. Among enterprise customers, those maintaining a primary relationship generate twice the revenue of customers with less-engaged relationships.

Enterprise Banking Moves Toward Strategic Partnership

BBVA intends to become a more important operating partner for businesses by expanding transactional banking and specialized advisory services. Payroll and tax payments, foreign-trade solutions and increasingly secure digital services are among the areas being developed.

The approach will vary by customer segment. For SMEs, where BBVA accounted for one in four new SME accounts opened in Spain in 2025, the bank plans to strengthen digital and remote engagement while developing industry-specific offerings.

For larger companies, specialized advisory capabilities and AI-based tools are expected to expand relationship managers’ capacity and simplify processes. Large corporations will remain focused on deeper relationships, particularly through cross-border business and sustainability, alongside sector-specific advisory services.

Insurance and Global Wealth Offer Additional Growth Potential

Insurance represents another significant opportunity because only 21% of BBVA customers currently hold an insurance policy with the bank. BBVA plans to use strategic partnerships in non-life insurance to expand penetration, while developing more personalized products covering areas including health, home, cyber risk and enterprise protection.

The bank reports that premiums in its non-life segments increased 18% between 2021 and 2025, compared with 7% for the broader market. The strategy now shifts toward anticipating individual customer protection needs while making insurance processes simpler and more responsive.

Global Wealth is also a priority. BBVA has 201,000 private banking and wealth management clients in Spain, with an 84% satisfaction rate and 46% more bankers than in December 2020. AI is expected to expand advisory capacity while reducing administrative and servicing requirements.

AI Becomes the Operating Accelerator Across the Bank

AI sits at the center of BBVA’s broader transformation strategy. The technology is intended to simplify and automate processes, improve scalability and enable increasingly individualized interactions with both individuals and companies.

Rather than relying primarily on broad customer segments, BBVA aims to use customer interactions and identified needs to deliver more relevant responses and services. The objective is to combine greater personalization with the specialized and technical advice required for more complex financial decisions.

For wealth management, this could allow advisory teams to extend their reach while spending less time on administrative processes. For corporate banking, AI tools could increase relationship-manager productivity and simplify operational workflows.

Closing Insights

BBVA’s Spanish strategy illustrates how large banks are increasingly treating AI not as a standalone technology initiative but as an accelerator for customer acquisition, relationship economics and higher-value financial services. The bank’s existing customer momentum provides a foundation, while enterprise banking, insurance and Global Wealth offer additional avenues for revenue expansion.

For global wealth investors and private banking clients, the most significant development is the combination of AI-enabled personalization with greater advisory specialization. The strategic test for BBVA will be whether technology can deepen relationships and improve efficiency without weakening the human expertise required for complex financial and wealth-management decisions.

For a confidential discussion regarding retail banking strategy, insurance distribution models, customer loyalty ecosystems, digital financial services, or cross-border financial innovation opportunities, contact our senior advisory team.