Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria - Move Into Asia and United States

Move Into Asia and United States

In the year 2006, BBVA outbid Banco Santander Central Hispano, Bank of America, and formed an alliance with China CITIC Bank, one of the biggest banks in China by acquiring a stake in the bank and in CITIC International Financial Holdings Limited (CIFH), China Citic Group’s main international arm.

Today, BBVA's investments and position in China are as follows:

• The BBVA Group invested about € 3bn into China CITIC Bank and CITIC International Financial Holdings Limited, the biggest outlay by a Spanish company in mainland China and Hong Kong so far
• BBVA holds a 15% stake in China CITIC Bank (CNCB)
• It owns a 30% stake in CITIC International Financial Holdings (CIFH)
• The alliance between BBVA and CITIC covers the development of retail and corporate banking in mainland China and Hong Kong, one of the fastest growing markets in the world, via CNCB and/or CIFH
• BBVA and CIFH (CITIC Group’s international arm) conduct corporate banking, investment banking and treasury business across the Asia region
• BBVA has directora on CNCB’s and CIFG's boards
• CNCB, whose head office is in Beijing, has assets of €62.2 billion, 13,485 employees (as of June 2006) and 416 branches, distributed throughout mainland China
• CIFH, whose headquarters are in Hong Kong, has assets of €9.3 billion, 1,711 staff and 38 branches
• BBVA aid off around a third of its global-markets staff in Asia in its first cutback in the region since expanding via through a 2007 purchase of a stake in China Citic Bank Corp. (0998.HK). The layoffs were part of global cutbacks by the bank that have reduced wholesale banking staff by 150.
• The cuts amount to 4 percent of BBVA's wholesale banking workforce globally and are a response declining demand.
• The latest manpower cuts reverse BBVA's earlier plan to expand investment banking in Latin America, Asia and the U.S. In 2010, its director of wholesale banking and asset management, Jose Barreiro, said BBVA would hire about 1,000 people in investment-banking, sales trading and asset management over a three-year period, bolstering its businesses like fixed income, commodities and merger advice, particularly in deals between Latin America and Asia.