Company: BBVXF
Filing Date: 2025-09-05
Form Type: F-4/A
Source: 0001193125-25-196513
Chunk: 258

Company: BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-09-05
Form: F-4/A
Chunk 258
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 be given directly by the foreign investor to the relevant authorities.

The Spanish government approved Royal Decree 571/2023, of July 4, on foreign investments (Real Decreto 571/2023, de 4 de julio, sobre inversiones exteriores) (the “New Spanish FDI Regulations”), which repeals Royal Decree 664/1999 and develops Law 19/2003. The New Spanish FDI Regulations came into force on September 1, 2023, and their provisions apply to FDI
(as defined below) filings submitted from that date onwards (ongoing FDI filings as of such date are governed by the former regulations). The New Spanish FDI Regulations were further developed by Order ECM 57/2024, of January 29, setting forth
the templates for the declarations in foreign investments.

The New Spanish FDI Regulations set out: (i) post-closing notification
obligations for foreign investments in Spain for statistical purposes; (ii) post-closing notification obligations for Spanish investments in foreign countries for statistical purposes; and (iii) most significantly, amended and developed
rules for Spanish FDIs screening mechanisms (“Screening Mechanisms”), under which the closing of specific FDIs requires prior authorization through both EU-law based general FDI screening,
regulated in article 7 bis of Law 19/2003 (“General FDI Screening Mechanism”), and sector-specific screening (which applies to activities directly related to Spanish National Defense, the acquisition of real estate for diplomatic
purposes by non-EU member states and investments in activities directly related to weapons, cartridges, pyrotechnic items and civil use explosives or other material to be used by the State Security Forces and
Bodies), which is a new mechanism.

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These Screening Mechanisms do not prohibit foreign investments in Spain; rather, they are mandatory authorization procedures to be carried out prior to closing specific transactions. In particular, the General FDI Screening Mechanism brings the Spanish screening framework in line with that set out in the EU laws, in particular, Regulation (EU) 2019/452, which allows EU member states to adopt mechanisms to screen FDIs in the EU. The banking activity itself is not expressly mentioned in the FDI sectors subject to the General FDI Screening Mechanism, which are the following: critical infrastructure, critical and dual-usetechnologies, key technologies for industrial leadership and training, technologies developed pursuant to projects or programs of particular interest to Spain, supply of critical inputs, sectors