Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) is set to embark on a second management reorganisation within 14 months in anticipation of a further push of its digital banking plans, according to Bloomberg.
The bank's chairman Francisco Gonzalez has predicted that few banks will be able to survive the ongoing challenge from non-bank competitors such as Google and Facebook and fintech startups all angling to disrupt the traditional retail banking sector.
Consequently he is looking to streamline the bank's management structure. The bank's units in Spain, Mexico, US and Turkey will report directly to chief executive Carlos Torres. Torres himself was appointed in May 2015 as part of an earlier cull of senior managers, including the former chief operating officer.
The bank's head of Customer Solutions, Derek White, who was brought in last year to sperhead the bank's digital banking push, will be given more responsibility over the bank's asset management, global wealth and consumer finance divisions as part of the reshuffle.
In addition to the management changes, BBVA is also likely to announce a series of job cuts and branch closures, reports Bloomberg. However the bank is maintaning a positive stance on the changes insiting that the latest round of changes will "create a more agile stucture" and "accelerate its transformation" towards a digital banking future.