About

BBVA Bancomer, Mexico’s largest bank, is a subsidiary of multinational Spanish banking group BBVA. Led by director of legal services José Fernando-Pío-Díaz Castañares, the legal department’s activities cover a wide range of areas. By running a successful legal operation at all levels, the company stated in its latest annual report that ‘there were no legal suits detected relating to acts of discrimination or violation of human rights, or significant legal complaints with regard to working conditions’. As part of such a large organisation, the team has been involved in diverse projects such as legal matters relating to the construction of the BBVA Bancomer Tower in 2015, the new company headquarters and the second tallest building in Mexico City at the time. This was part of the bank’s $3.5bn investment in the last three years to renovate branches, corporate units and its technological platforms. The team also recently facilitated a new scheme that allows customers to pay for petrol fuel using reward points. This scheme followed an agreement with Mexican petrol station operator G500 Group in 2015 to include BBVA Bancomer in their “retailer package” which provides a $630m fund for retailing operators, and will also allow customers to make cash withdrawals at the petrol stations. More recently, the legal department handled a $230m financing loan to leading North American glass producer, Vitro, for its $310m acquisition of Pittsburgh Glass Works’ (PGW) original equipment manufacturer glass business from LKQ Corporation in December 2016. As part of BBVA Bancomer’s ongoing efforts to accelerate transformation by growing its portfolio of digital companies, the legal team oversaw its acquisition of Openpay, a Mexican online payments start-up, for an undisclosed fee in December 2016. This acquisition will allow users to make card, cash and loyalty points payments and bank transfers – widening the services that BBVA Bancomer can offer its customers. As the bank plans to authorise $3.2bn in mortgages and invest a further $50m in smart technology, the legal department is set to continue its role of facilitating developments related to the business plans.