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These latest awards by Global Finance come hot on the heels of BBVA’s new 2025–2029 strategic cycle, in which the corporate and business segment is a priority. BBVA positions itself as a strategic partner for companies of all sizes, combining expert advisory services, advanced technology, and a global outlook.

The jury held a particularly positive view of the bank’s efforts to grow its SME business. In 2024, BBVA achieved 40% growth in revenues from this key segment compared with 2023 to reach €3 billion. This performance, combined with the Group’s presence in more than 25 countries, enables the bank to offer companies real opportunities to scale across borders thanks to its global network and extensive sector expertise.

The awards also reflect BBVA’s leadership in sustainability. The bank has provided training to SME suppliers across 13 countries, helping them transition toward more efficient and responsible business models. The bank’s SME specialists play a key role in this regard, helping businesses anticipate future needs, from franchising and foreign trade to structured finance and risk management.

Digitalization and advanced solutions for SMEs

Global Finance cited the bank’s digital transformation, especially in SME financing. In 2024, BBVA tripled the number of preapproved credits, which now account for 50% of all completed transactions, and generated 3.5 times more new credit originated through digital channels, driven by more agile processes and enhanced risk management.

“We want working with BBVA to be easy. That’s why we are radically transforming how we engage with SMEs through simple, scalable digital solutions. This transformation is supported by the integration of technological capabilities, expert advisory services, and an on-the-ground presence in each region, with solutions designed specifically to cater to the needs of each company,” remarked José Luis Serrano, head of SMEs for BBVA Spain.

The jury also pointed to the bank’s fully digital solution that integrates financial services with point-of-sale (PoS) terminals. In Spain, around 40% of business clients already use BBVA’s Android-based terminal, a device that operates much like a smartphone, enabling businesses to process returns, access transaction histories, and install apps to optimize the way they run the business.

These innovations help simplify day-to-day operations, improve efficiency, and support the growth of thousands of small businesses in Spain and throughout Western Europe.

BBVA, the strategic partner of choice for businesses

The model is built around three pillars: a client-centric approach, responsible and sustainable growth, and providing clients with full access to the bank’s products and services. Relying on its end-to-end range of products and services and highly specialized structure, BBVA supports companies in everything from daily operations to strategic decision-making, with solutions tailored to their needs that fuse technology, sector knowledge, and sustainability.

Furthermore, the bank is driving a more digital, agile, and personalized experience through automated processes, self-service solutions, and the integration of financial services into the digital ecosystems of its clients or third parties.

A leading source for economic and financial information

Founded in 1987, Global Finance is a magazine specializing in financial markets and investment banking. It is an international reference point for corporate leaders, bankers, and investors alike. Its annual awards have become a benchmark of excellence, combining expert analysis, quantitative metrics, and independent assessment of submissions.

Each year, the magazine selects the best financial institutions worldwide based on a qualitative review conducted by experts and analysis of indicators such as market share, number and volume of transactions, and innovation.

The editors of Global Finance, together with industry analysts, corporate executives, and experts in technology, choose the winners of these awards. They evaluate entries from the banks themselves along with independent research to assess a broad set of criteria.

In the Transylvanian village of Pianu de Jos, 51-year-old Dana Chitucescu gathers a sack of empty polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, aluminium cans and glass every week and walks it to her local shop.

Like millions of Romanians across cities and rural areas, Chitucescu has woven the country’s two-year-old deposit return system (DRS) into her routine.

It’s a simple scheme: when you buy soft drinks or alcoholic beverages, you pay an extra 0.50 RON (£0.09) per bottle and get the money back when you return the packaging, cleaned and in its original shape, to a collection point ( usually the same shops where the goods were purchased).

Chitucescu makes about 40 RON per week from recycling her and another family’s bottles. “That covers the food for my seven cats,” she said. “It’s a great system, everyone in our village uses it, there’s always a queue at the shop.”

Her weekly walk is one tiny part of a national shift that, until recently, seemed impossible. Romania’s recycling rates were among the lowest in the EU, but in the two years since the scheme launched, beverage-packaging collection and recycling has skyrocketed to 94%.

“It is a zero to hero story,” said Gemma Webb, CEO of RetuRO, the company running the system in a public-private partnership with beverage packaging manufacturers and the state. “The products are clean, there is little contamination, they can be recycled easily and we have full traceability as well, so we know every bottle that goes on the market.”

Romanians returned about 7.5bn beverage containers between the system’s launch in November 2023 and the end of September 2025, according to the company. The returns included 4bn PET bottles, 2bn metal cans, and 1.5bn glass containers. More than 500,000 tonnes of high-quality recyclable materials have been collected. “We are the largest fully integrated deposit return system globally.”

The scale of Romania’s turnaround is even more striking given where the country started. For more than a decade, the country has sat at the bottom of Europe’s recycling statistics. Between 2011 and 2021, the country’s municipal waste recycling rate barely budged, drifting between 11% and 14% while the rest of the EU climbed ahead.

Romania ranked last in the EU for circular material usage, with only 1% of materials being recycled and reintroduced into the economy in 2021.

But in 2018 the government began discussions about the scheme; in 2022 RetuRO began work, and on an extremely tight timeline including the construction of nine counting and sorting centres nationwide, the scheme launched in late 2023.

“Now we have one of the largest, most complex logistics networks in Romania,” said Webb.

In fact starting later than other countries may have been an advantage, says Raul Pop, secretary of state in the environment ministry and a waste policy expert, because Romania could use modern software and traceability tools.

It’s on a return-to-retail model: shops that sell the containers must either install reverse vending machines or process the packaging manually. There’s also a financial incentive for them, which helps them cover processing costs, and RetuRO reinvests all profits back into operations.

A nationwide advertising campaign used the Romanian traditional dance, the hora, people holding hands and dancing in a circle, to symbolise shared responsibility, and a recent

study found that 90% of Romanians say they have used the system at least once and 60% return packaging regularly.

Other countries, Pop explained, “suffer from their own inertia” because they introduced their systems decades ago and are now stuck with outdated models. For them, shifting to new systems risks confusing consumers, even if it could improve collection rates.

Countries such as Poland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Serbia have had meetings with RetuRO and the Romanian authorities looking to learn best practices as they prepare to implement a similar system.

Romania has also introduced a supportive legal framework, which means retailers can be penalised if they refuse returns – even the smallest village shops must accept containers if they sell the products or they risk fines, while big chains have automised return points.

After its success with beverage containers, the system is planning to expand to cover other types of packaging. “If you can put a bottle of water, you can also put a bottle of vinegar, a jar or a milk carton,” said Alexandra Țuțuianu of Ecoteca, Romania’s first waste-management NGO.

But when it comes to other types of packaging such as crisps packets, which contain flexible plastic, or shampoo bottles, both RetuRO and the government say they don’t want to rush.

Webb said the programme was still too young for major additions. “We are still new and it is still premature to add more into the system,” she said, adding that any addition would require the same level of research that went into beverage containers and collaboration with industry partners who produce the materials.

Environmental groups have praised Romania’s system, but warn that it covers only a small slice of the country’s overall waste stream. “It’s the largest environmental programme, an example of good practice, we praise it, we like the system a lot, but it is not enough, it does not solve the waste problem in Romania,” said Țuțuianu.

Beverage packaging accounts for just 5% of all waste generated in Romania. The country recorded a total recycling rate of only 12% in 2024, according to Eurostat, and has never exceeded 14%. Even with a hypothetical 100% return rate for beverage containers, the overall waste recycling rate would only rise marginally.

Re-use, Elena Rastei of the NGO Zero Waste Romania argued, needs to be looked at more closely.

“Collection solves the problem of visible waste, but re-use changes its nature. When packaging circulates – returned, washed, refilled – it becomes a resource, not waste. A single, reusable bottle can replace 20 to 50 single-use bottles, cut carbon emissions, and support a truly circular economy.”

For now, while Romania has become a policy model abroad, for Chitucescu, the success is not measured in billions of bottles but in what she doesn’t see anymore in her community.

When heavy rain falls, bottles aren’t swept into the streams anymore. When she walks through the village, the streets are free of the rubbish that once littered them.

Her brother, who lives in Spain, is envious. He tells her they don’t have a similar system there, and it’s one of the rare things Romania is doing exceptionally well.

“He’s jealous of us, and he’s right, it’s beneficial for us and for the environment,” said Chitucescu.

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that AUMOVIO, the newly launched global technology company focused on future mobility, has selected a comprehensive suite of cloud solutions from SAP to help build its digital foundation.

These include SAP Cloud ERP Private, SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP Integrated Business Planning and SAP Signavio solutions.

Following its spinoff from Continental AG in September 2025, AUMOVIO is redefining the automotive landscape with its bold vision to make mobility safe, exciting, connected and autonomous. With over 100 years of experience and a global footprint of more than 86,000 employees across over 100 locations, AUMOVIO is now embracing SAP’s intelligent enterprise solutions to become even more dynamic, agile and competitive.

“This move to the cloud and these solutions will transform our operations,” said Thorsten Pache, CIO of AUMOVIO. “We’re building a digital-first foundation that allows us to scale innovation, respond to market shifts in real time and deliver intelligent mobility solutions that anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s drivers.”

The deployment of SAP Cloud ERP Private provides AUMOVIO with a more secure and flexible digital core, while SAP Business Data Cloud enables real-time data harmonization across its global footprint. SAP Integrated Business Planning supports comprehensive supply chain visibility and responsiveness, and SAP Signavio solutions empower continuous process optimization and transformation.

“Our collaboration with AUMOVIO demonstrates how cloud technology can accelerate reinvention,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery. “By combining advanced planning, process intelligence and a unified data foundation, AUMOVIO is well positioned to lead in the era of connected and autonomous mobility.”

AUMOVIO’s transformation reflects its commitment to innovation, operational excellence and collaborative spirit. AUMOVIO is now better positioned to deliver cutting-edge solutions, from sensors and displays to autonomous driving platforms, while maintaining operational excellence and customer-centricity.

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Media Contact:
Lesa Plingen, +49 622 776 9000, lesa.plingen@sap.com, CET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com

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