BBVA Argentina Capital Optimization (MIGA-15490)

Regions
  • Latin America and Caribbean
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Argentina
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Mar 27, 2025
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA)
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Guarantee
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 700.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ MIGA website

Updated in EWS Feb 17, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Feb 13, 2025


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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated by the MIGA, the project consists of a guarantee to cover equity investments by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA or the Group), in its subsidiary in Argentina, Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. (BBVA Argentina or the Subsidiary). The investor has applied for a MIGA guarantee of up to USD700 million for capital optimization cover for a period of up to 3 years (the Project). This guarantee is part of a multi-country Mandatory Reserves Program with BBVA.

MIGA analyzed BBVA Argentina's portfolio by types of transactions, tenor, size, industry sectors, and exposure to MIGA's Exclusion List. As of December 2024, BBVA Argentina's portfolio included the following business segments - corporate finance (mostly short-term lending), trade finance and financial institutions. The main sectors supported include telecommunications; wholesale and retail trade; oil, gas and mining; financial services (including insurance and collective investment vehicles) chemicals; and food and beverage. BBVA Argentina currently has limited exposure to activities on the MIGA Exclusion List. The Bank also has exposure to oil and gas activities. BBVA Group has policies outlining its commitment to decarbonize its loan portfolio by 2030 and achieve Net Zero by 2050.

For the proposed guarantee, BBVA Argentina will report annually to MIGA regarding the implementation of the E&S procedures for the Project portfolio, as well as its labor practices.

The aim of MIGA's proposed guarantee is to help BBVA optimize the Group's risk- weighted assets (RWA) on a consolidated basis. Through the MIGA guarantee, the parent bank will pass the benefits of the RWA relief at the Group level to its operating subsidiary. The RWA capacity that is freed up by MIGA's proposed guarantee would be utilized to support BBVA Argentina's lending operations in key socially responsible development areas, such as climate activities, social projects and SMEs, including women-SMEs.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated by the MIGA, BBVA is a global financial services group founded in 1857. The bank is present in more than 25 countries, has a strong leadership position in the Spanish market, is the largest financial institution in Mexico and it has leading franchises in South America and Turkey. As of December 2024, the group employed 125,916 people across 5,749 branches and served more than 77.2 million customers. Further information on the BBVA Group can be found on https://shareholdersandinvestors.bbva.com/.

BBVA Argentina is a subsidiary of the BBVA Group, the main shareholder since 1996. In Argentina, it has been one of the leading private financial institutions since 1886. At present the Group is the largest shareholder, holding 66.6% of total shares. The Subsidiary provides a broad range of financial and non-financial services to 3.6 million customers across 235 branches.


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No project contacts provided at the time of disclosure.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://www.miga.org/contact/access_to_information

You can also request general information about MIGA and for information on guarantees by emailing: migainquiry@worldbank.org

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

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How it works