“Can a 165-year-old global bank become the embedded finance infrastructure layer for fintechs and corporates across its 15+ country footprint through a self-operated API marketplace?”
BBVA is a 165-year-old Spanish multinational bank that has repositioned itself as a 'digital bank with a banking license,' making technology and data core strategic pillars. Beginning in 2015, BBVA became one of the first incumbent banks globally to launch a public API marketplace, offering open banking APIs as a product rather than purely a compliance exercise. The bank has built a Digital Ecosystems layer (BBVA API Market) that allows fintechs and corporates to embed BBVA banking, lending, accounts, and payments capabilities directly into third-party platforms — essentially operating as a BaaS provider under its own charter rather than white-labeling through a third-party BaaS layer.