Company: BBVXF
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000842180-25-000010
Chunk: 111

Company: BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 111
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 BigTech companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Apple have also started to offer financial services (mainly, in relation to payments and credit) ancillary to their core business.
In this new competitive environment, banks and other players are calling for a level playing field that ensures fair competition among the different financial services providers. Regulations on consumer protection and the integrity of the financial system (such as anti-money laundering regulations or regulations for combating the financing of terrorism) are generally activity-specific and, therefore, meet the principle of a level playing field. However, with regards to financial stability, banking groups are subject to prudential regulations that have implications for most of their activities, including those in which they compete with non-bank players that are only subject to activity-specific regulations, at best, or not regulated at all. Therefore, the scope of the perimeter of prudential consolidation to which the prudential regulation and supervision in the European Union and elsewhere applies compromises the level playing field principle by requiring banking groups to apply banking-level controls to all subsidiaries, no matter their activities and actual risks involved. Restrictions on the activity of bank players, for instance as regards internal governance requirements, leave EU banks at a competitive disadvantage as regards cost, time-to-market or talent attraction compared to their competitors.
Existing loopholes in the regulatory framework are another cause of an uneven playing field between banks and non-bank players. Some new services or business models are not yet subject to existing regulations. In such cases, not only are potential risks to financial stability, consumer protection and the integrity of the financial system unaddressed, but asymmetries may arise between players since regulated providers often face obstacles that unregulated providers do not.
See also “Item 3. Key Information—Risk Factors—Business Risks—The Group faces increasing competition and is exposed to a changing business model”.
Another trend in the market is consolidation. Following the 2008 financial crisis, a number of banks disappeared or were absorbed by other banks. In the current context of economic uncertainty, there may be some consolidation in the regions where the Group operates.
Additional information on certain market dynamics affecting the three main countries where we operate is provided below.
Spain
The commercial banking sector in Spain has undergone significant consolidation since the 2008 financial crisis. Following the merger of Caixabank and Bankia in 2021, Caixabank is the largest bank in Spain in terms of total assets. In addition, the merger between Unicaja and Liberbank, completed in June 2021, created