Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Última Entrega de Internal Assessment Business
Última Entrega de Internal Assessment Business
May 2022
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Methodology 3
Conclusion 10
References 11
Supporting Documents 11
Other Sources: 11
1
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
Introduction
BBVA is a global financial group, headquartered in Bilbao, who offers to nearly 79,8mill customers a
full range of financial and non-financial services (Supporting Document 2). After being founded in
1999 (El País, 1999), BBVA has reached the 42nd position in the largest bank (Ali Z., 2020). The
company mission statement is to generate confidence by offering products of the highest quality, to
support social welfare; always with transparency and integrity (BBVA, 2012).
BVA had a downward trend in its global growth from -2.4% to around -3.1% in 2020 due to
the unexpected pandemic. However, the 2021 prognosis foresees a growth from 4.8% to 5.1%
(BBVA, 2020a). This suggests that the strategies BBVA is applying at the moment succeed in
adapting to the current situation. From these strategies, the one that stands out the most is
2
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
Methodology
This assessment will evaluate whether BBVA teleworking strategy, due to COVID-19, is
advantageous. The evaluation is centered on BBVA’s 2020 annual report as the first supporting
document, which summarizes BBVA’s activities in 2020. The Factsheet from 2020, which explains
the general services of BBVA. Two articles, one from Luis Casal, mastered in politics, who analyses
the change in Spanish banks online customers, and another one, from the CincoDías newspaper, that
compares the profit and loss accounts of the same banks. Finally, a report of the finance performance
of BBVA in 2020. Counting with other sources, such as the supporting methodology of Agile.
The commentary will use different business tools, including the SWOT analysis, very
effective for assessing a strategy at the present time; an analysis of the market growth and share, in
order to see how the firm’s portion of the sales has increased, thanks to telework; finally, the
comparison between the profit and loss accounts of 2019 and 2020 is going to show how the telework
strategy has resulted in saving costs, the draw back of this tool is that it involves the whole company
3
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
Telework is a tool with a wide range of strengths, on the premise that BBVA was the first bank that
started betting on teleworking, in 2011. It is a strategy that lets employees manage their own time and
space, which raises their level of motivation and well-being. Furthermore, a research done by the
Stanford University has shown that telework makes employees 13% more productive as it empowers
them (Bloom N, Liang J, Roberts J, Jenny Z, 2012). Also, as BBVA has said, they are creating new
ways of leadership that focus on the employees “so the employee feels like a leader in his/her own
space” (BBVA, 2019) thanks to the Agile methodology. Ending with the strengths, BBVA operates
Telework also comes with some really flattering opportunities. The first one is the ongoing
trend of customers using online services. In general, BBVA has gained 2.5mill online customers,
which benefits the development of teleworking as an online tool. Moving on, BBVA relies on several
4
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
methodological archetypes, Agile, Scrum and Kanban, that support the development of teleworking in
BBVA and facilitate employee organization. Also, BBVA reports that they have reduced their CO 2
emission by 58%, which gives them a more eco-friendly image. Furthermore, BBVA is cutting
expenses on electricity and gas in their offices as employees are in their domiciles, the average annual
energy costs of a consumer in Spain is 1400€. Finally, for all of the above, BBVA continues to lead in
terms of efficiency and profitability compared to their European peers. In fact, BBVA has been
recognised for being the second bank more sustainable in the entire world (Supporting Document 1).
demotivation of employees. BBVA has to take into account that their employees' residences have
turned into their workplace, which makes the productivity higher, but can result in employees
resigning. Secondly, BBVA had to cover all the technological material that its workers needed in
order to telework, and, in some cases, BBVA compensated employees with 200€ for teleworking
expenses.
Although BBVA has provided the material needed for the best communication possible,
telework lacks the proximity of an on-site talk, as a consequence there may be some
Finally, telework counts with an important thread which is cyber attacks. However, BBVA
has established a security governance model carried out by the Computer Emergency Response Team
To sum up, in the SWOT analysis it can be seen that teleworking is a tool that comes by the
hand of many benefits and opportunities, while its weaknesses and threats are little and easy to
manage. From this starting point, that teleworking is a positive tool in BBVA, now it will be analyzed
how it has affected the company, from a marketing and financial point of view.
5
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
In the middle of the pandemic, a total of 86000 employees out of 122021 were working remotely in
response (Gascueña D., 2020). So it can be said that teleworking was an imperative for BBVA during
this crisis.
According to its annual report, BBVA started the year having a 27,2% of capital below the
previous year, seen in the graph below. For example, in Spain there were 56,3% of losses.
Figure 1:
Graph of Total Active possessed (in billions) per semester of BBVA.
However, the market growth potential for BBVA is increasing. The company established that its net
margin increased in its main business areas, apart from having the highest hedge rate in Spain, 11,7%
(Supporting Document 1). Thanks to this BBVA expects “a strong recovery in the markets they
The banking industry has suffered a recession due to the pandemic. But thanks to the
strategies of BBVA its market share in customers has also increased during this year. Being the
second bank with the highest growth in online customers. As shown in the SWOT analysis, BBVA
has passed from possessing a global mark of 31,8mill. online clients, from which 5,3mill. belong to
Spain; to have 34,3mill. clients globally, being 5,8mill. Spanish (Supporting Document 3). As a
result, BBVA market share has risen from 20,9% in 2019, to possessing 21,2% in 2020 (Supporting
Document 3):
6
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
Figure 2:
Graph of Market share of Customers online in Spain from the main banks, in 2019.
Figure 3:
Graph of Market share of Customers online in Spain from the main banks, in 2020.
So, it is clear that between these two years BBVA has had a substantial improvement in its
marketing function, while most of its workers were teleworking. This growth in marketing
can be directly reflected in the financial analysis of the profit and loss accounts change in
7
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
Firstly, BBVA ended 2019 with a starting revenue of 4727mill€ (BBVA, 2021b). However, the final
It is true that the income from selling its services has decreased a 14,6% between the two
years, but, in contrast, BBVA has gotten a higher retained profit in the 4Q2020 than in the 4Q2019.
The company passed from having a negative retained profit of 155mill€ in 2019 (BBVA, 2021b), to a
positive retained profit of 1320mill€ at the end of 2020 (Supporting Document 5). This is because,
among others, the operating expenses were reduced by a 13,2% and provisioning losses were reduced
by a 38,6%. Also, as said in the SWOT analysis, BBVA has reduced its CO 2 emissions by 58%,
Table 2:
Profit and Loss Account change of BBVA from 4Q2018 to 4Q2019.
8
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
Table 3:
Profit and Loss Account change of BBVA from 4Q2019 to 4Q2020.
In comparison to other banks, BBVA has had a low decrease in the sales revenue but a high decrease
in the general expenses between 2019 and 2020. For example, Santander had a decrease of 82% in the
attributable profit (Santander, 2020), due to the excessive expenses and worsening of its services that
rose to 12039mill€ in 2020 (Supporting Document 4). This shows that despite being the bank with the
highest market growth, the costs of adapting to the pandemic resulted in having losses. Or the Europe
Central Bank, which had a negative result of 1285mill€ (Supporting Document 4). Finally, BBVA is
the only Spanish bank who has escaped from reducing its dividends paid to shareholders (Supporting
Document 4).
9
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
Conclusion
Based on the results obtained and answering the initial question: To what extent is teleworking
sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era? It can be concluded that telework is a sustainable
strategy for BBVA after the pandemic. Firstly, the SWOT analysis has shown the higher level of
strengths and opportunities compared to his weaknesses and threats, which by the way pose little
menace to BBVA. Secondly, in the market share and growth analysis, it has been seen that as
teleworking was a main strategy for BBVA during the pandemic, it has contributed to BBVA being
the second bank in Spain with the highest number of online customers and second in marketing
growth above all banks in Spain. Finally, analyzing the profit and loss account it has been appreciated
that a decrease in the general expenses of the company has caused BBVA to increase its net
attributable profit from 2019 to 2020. In comparison with its peer banks, BBVA has gotten out of the
10
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
References
Supporting Documents
https://accionistaseinversores.bbva.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Informe-Anual-2020_ESP.pdf
Supporting Document 3: El País. Large banks gain 6.5 million digital customers by 2020, boosted by
https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2020/09/04/companias/1599252280_451113.html#:~:text=A
%20nivel%20global%20cuenta%20con,a%20ra%C3%ADz%20del%20Covid%2D19. [Accessed:
March 9,2021]
Supporting Document 4: Translation from: CincoDías. Spanish banks would earn just 660 million
https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2018/11/02/companias/1541160254_362257.html [Accessed:
June 13,2021]
Supporting Document 5: BBVA. BBVA earns €1.32 billion in 4Q20, its best quarterly result in two
Other Sources:
Ali. Z. The world's 100 largest banks, 2020. 07/04/20 Retrieved form:
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/the-world-s-
11
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
BBVA. Agile transformation 2.0: creating a new leadership style. 03/07/2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.bbva.com/es/transformacion-agile-2-0-crear-un-nuevo-estilo-de-liderazgo/ [Accessed:
March 6, 2021]
BBVA. BBVA profit ex items reaches €4.83 billion in 2019 - the highest in 10 years. 31/01/20.
scenarios: the arrival of teleworking. Antonio and María José, from SECOT and David from BBVA.
2021]
%20misi%C3%B3n%20del%20Grupo%20Financiero,de%20la%20m%C3%A1s%20alta%20calidad
https://accionistaseinversores.bbva.com/microsites/resultados2020/Q2/en/index.html [Accessed:
March 5, 2021]
BBVA. The seven keys to face teleworking. 13/03/20. Retrieved from: https://www.bbva.com/es/7-
Bloom N, Liang J, Roberts J, Jenny Z. Does Working from Home work? July, 2012. Retrieved from:
https://www.comunicarseweb.com/sites/default/files/biblioteca/pdf//1346851909_teletrabajo.pdf
12
To what extent is teleworking sustainable for BBVA in the post-Covid era?
ECD. BBVA compensates 3,000 employees with 200 euros for teleworking expenses. 02/07/20,
El País. The Boards of BBV and Argentaria approve their merger today. 18/12/1999. Retrieved from:
Gascueña. D. Teleworking: the new normality post COVID-19? 27/10/20. Retrieved from:
2021]
https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2011/06/20/mercados/1308664035_850215.html [Accessed:
March 6, 2021]
Translation from: BBVA. BBVA helps customers save on gas and electricity bills thanks to data
13