Summary: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.

Strong franchise in almost all markets where the bank operates. Diversification benefits provided by foreign operations. Conservative risk management and comparatively low credit risk profile. Sound and resilient operating profitability. Business concentration in countries with higher-than-average economic risk. Comparatively weaker creditworthiness of Spain, which concentrates over half of BBVA's asset base. Moderate, albeit improving, capitalization. The stable outlook on Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) mirrors Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' long-term sovereign credit rating on Spain. Our ratings on BBVA are currently constrained by the creditworthiness of Spain. Therefore, we would expect any positive or negative movements in the long-term sovereign credit rating on Spain to drive any rating actions on BBVA. All other factors driving our ratings are

...Outlook: Stable The stable outlook on Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) mirrors Standard & Poor's Ratings Services' long-term sovereign credit rating on Spain. Our ratings on BBVA are currently constrained by the creditworthiness of Spain. Therefore, we would expect any positive or negative movements in the long-term sovereign credit rating on Spain to drive any rating actions on BBVA. All other factors driving our ratings are unlikely to change. Following BBVA's acquisition of an additional stake in Turkish bank Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS (Garanti), and of Catalunya Banc S.A. (Catalunya) in Spain, we do not envisage further meaningful merger and acquisition activity. Instead, we expect the bank to focus on integrating the aforementioned acquisitions. We also anticipate that BBVA will continue developing its strong retail banking franchises in the majority of countries it operates in, taking advantage of the economic momentum, with a focus on strengthening profitability,...

Summary