About BBVA

BBVA is a large-scale, highly solvent global financial group with a solid position in the Spanish market and a market-leading franchise operation in Latin America.  It is developing a number of initiatives, among which a new business approach, a service-oriented technology and quality management stand out.  Its quality management plan aims to create value for its shareholders in a differentiated, sustainable way.  

The more than 90,000 people who make up the BBVA group, and who attend to 35 million customers in 37 countries through a network of 7,500 branch offices, will go on managing 400 million euros. 

Background of the project 

From the first approaches to the text of the new Basel Capital Accord, all financial institutions began to identify, in their portfolio of short and medium-term initiatives, projects having to do with the development of their risk control models in line with the guidelines that were starting to be established.

Some, such as BBVA, decided to go further by launching a process of internal change that would create, in consonance with the criteria being developed in Basel, a new management model in which not only profitability, but also the risk component, would play an integral part in any decision made by the institution... and then they went to work. 

The first steps taken were internal ones, involving the interpretation of the new standards or work with consultants specializing in the definition of statistical and financial models.  But all of these components had to be transferred into the realm of information systems.  This meant translating the standard into systems that would incorporate new variables, support calculation processes, and be able to store the history data generated.

At this point BBVA decided to incorporate a consulting company into its internal teams, an organization that would enable the financial group to expedite this maturing process by maintaining full control of the project.  That organization was DMR Consulting.

Development of the “BBVA RAR Plan” project

The objective of the initial project was to answer, from the information systems standpoint, three basic questions:  What projects must we undertake?  What will the timetable be?  How much will all this cost us?  

To be able to respond to those questions, DMR Consulting did a great deal of hard work.

First, an exhaustive review was conducted of the current situation with regard to the bank’s information regarding profitability and risks on the different platforms in Spain and Latin America.

We then built a new information systems model that gave coverage to the needs that the users in the bank’s risk management and financial areas expressed in response to their internal requirements and those stipulated in the Basel Accord.  The users’ participation and the transfer of knowledge were fundamental in determining how to convert what had been, until then, theoretical formulations into information systems, and to configure a model that would be valid for the bank’s two computer platforms.

When we had completed those two tasks, we carried out the Projects Master Plan, which indicated the path to follow to make BBVA’s management information systems evolve, both in Latin America and in Spain, in the following way:

• The associated projects were identified—both those involving risks and those affecting other areas that had to lend support to the construction of this new model;
• Effort and timetable estimates were made that enabled BBVA to know the time frames and cost to the bank of launching a project of this nature, as well as the benefits to be expected from it;
• Once the Projects Master Plan was complete, all the information system building and adaptation projects were started, including both those that had been identified for Spain and for Latin America.  We are currently continuing to work with BBVA on these projects.  

Contribution by DMR Consulting

Upon completion of this first project, the degree of BBVA’s satisfaction with DMR Consulting was very high.  What the bank appreciated most were what we understand to have been our keys for the success of the project, and which can be summed up as follows:

•  The ability to catalyze and energize a process made complex by the multitude of users involved and the importance that project had for the bank;
•  The interaction we achieved with the bank’s entire team, with which the community of interest was total;
•  Our ability to assimilate complex information and to translate business requirements into information system requirements
•  The responsibility and punctuality with which plans were fulfilled and products generated, as well as the systematic approach and methodology applied during the execution of the project.  

The benefits associated with these systems have been cost savings, increased productivity and a greater transfer of knowledge among the users inside the bank.