BBVA Compass declares financial education workshop pilot a success; plans full launch for 2019

HOUSTON, Dec. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BBVA Compass wraps up a four-month pilot program in December designed to provide financial education workshops through partnerships with local nonprofit organizations. Based on the success of the pilot program, the bank plans to execute a full program launch next year.

The pilot program, which began in late August, included 28 nonprofits organizations in 19 markets across the bank's footprint. The total impact currently exceeds 2,600 participants, with more expected before the program concludes in the next week. Workshops were customized to focus on small business, personal finance and home ownership and led by local bank volunteers with expertise in each of the subject areas.

According to BBVA Compass Director of Corporate Responsibility and Reputation Reymundo Ocañas, the program underscores the bank's purpose to bringing the age of opportunity to everyone by improving the lives and financial capabilities of the people in the communities served by the bank.

"We have seen a strong positive response to this pilot which, for us, emphasizes the need to expand the depth and breadth of our reach," Ocañas said. "Our goal for 2019 is to partner with more nonprofit organizations across our footprint to provide the financial education foundation that will help create opportunities for more people to improve their financial capabilities and achieve financial security."

The BBVA Compass Foundation, the bank's charitable-giving arm, selected the nonprofits to receive grants and host financial education workshops led by BBVA Compass subject matter experts. These workshops are designed to help participants improve their understanding of the financial system in order to identify and seize opportunities to increase their financial stability. The grant recipients have a demonstrated ability to provide financial capability programming to low- and moderate-income families, to unbanked or underbanked populations, or to small businesses in underserved areas.

BBVA Compass will expand the program in 2019 to include up to 12 additional markets using similar selection criteria, and will pursue a goal of educating 10,000 low- to moderate-income adults throughout the whole of 2019.

BBVA Compass provided the workshop curricula, which it developed using its own subject-matter experts in partnership with leading education technology firm EverFi.

"As experts in the field of financial matters, we believe we have an obligation to share our knowledge with the people in our communities," said Ocañas. "We want to do whatever we can to help them make sound, responsible financial choices."

For more information on the bank's Center for Financial Education Workshops, please contact [email protected]

To learn more about BBVA Compass, visit: www.bbvacompass.com

For more news visit: www.bbva.com and newsroom.bbvacompass.com

About BBVA Group
BBVA (NYSE: BBVA) is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. The Group has a strong leadership position in the Spanish market, is the largest financial institution in Mexico, it has leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt Region of the United States; and it is also the leading shareholder in Garanti, Turkey's biggest bank for market capitalization. Its diversified business is focused on high-growth markets and it relies on technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility is at the core of its business model. BBVA fosters financial education and inclusion, and supports scientific research and culture. It operates with the highest integrity, a long-term vision and applies the best practices. More information about BBVA Group can be found at bbva.com.

About BBVA Compass
BBVA Compass is a Sunbelt-based financial institution that operates 645 branches, including 332 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 63 in Arizona, 61 in California, 45 in Florida, 37 in Colorado and 18 in New Mexico. BBVA Compass ranks among the top 25 largest U.S. commercial banks based on deposit market share and ranks among the largest banks in Alabama (2nd), Texas (4th) and Arizona (6th). BBVA Compass has been recognized as one of the leading small business lenders by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and ranked 6th nationally in the total number of SBA loans originated in fiscal year 2017. Additional information about BBVA Compass can be found under the Investor Relations tab at bbvacompass.com. For more BBVA Compass news, follow @BBVACompassNews on Twitter, visit newsroom.bbvacompass.com, or visit bbva.com.

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SOURCE BBVA Compass