Editor’s note: Today’s post comes from Raul Navarrete, Head of Mobile Channel and Smart Assistants, BBVA Spain. BBVA Spain uses Google Maps Platform to create a true culture of trust for its customers.

The rise of mobile technology has completely changed the way we pay for goods and services. Back in 2019, just 4.4% of our customers opted for mobile payments, a figure that has now risen to 23%. That’s not just due to technological advances: the COVID-19 pandemic also played a big role in showing people of all generations, not just millennials and Generation Z, the benefits of online payments. 

Here at BBVA, we’re committed to using cutting-edge technology to help our customers get the most out of the banking experience. We’ve been using Google Maps Platform to help our users find their nearest ATM, and decided that it was time to expand the benefits of detailed geospatial data. To provide our customers with greater transparency around their spending in a secure environment we worked with Google Cloud Premier Partner Dinasur to integrate further Google Maps Platform products into the BBVA mobile app.

Using geospatial data to build trust and manage spend

We’ve all checked our bank balance and panicked over a transaction we didn’t remember making. In the past, this usually led to a call to customer service, canceling the card and waiting several days for a new one. With the help of Dinasur, we implemented a solution that enables our customers to simply open their BBVA app and instantly see exactly where and when they spent their money. If that doesn’t immediately jog their memory, they can then click “more information” to access further details about the business, such as photos, opening hours, and contact information. In most cases, that’s enough to resolve the situation, but if it isn’t–say the customer believes they were overcharged–they have all the information they need to contact the vendor and work together towards a solution. In turn, this means BBVA is able to spend more time addressing complex cases and providing our customers with personalized service through the call center.

Using Google Maps Platform benefits not only our customers, but also the local businesses they frequent. It helps relieve stress around transactions and enables users to better understand their own spending habits. At the same time, it enables them to keep track of great new restaurants they’ve enjoyed or find their way back to that tiny boutique.  And make sure their friends and family know about them. It also helps us increase security. For example, Google Maps Platform is enabling us to work hand-in-hand with our customers to fight illegal activity such as text message scams. If a person sees that a transaction was processed somewhere they never visited, they can instantly flag fraudulent activity to BBVA.

We’re currently enabling these features using Maps Javascript API, Maps SDK, and Places API, as well as Places Autocomplete and Geocoding API, and are looking forward to continuing to work with Google Maps Platform to further develop features within the BBVA app. And we’re also working towards a “map of payments'' that will show a customer their own spending in a given location. Say you’ve been on a trip to London and are interested in seeing exactly how much you’ve spent, on what, and where–it may all be visible to you on a single, user-friendly map. At the same time, we’re interested in helping people find great deals and support local businesses through geolocated promotions, whether the customer is at home looking to save money on their weekly shop, or on vacation searching for a boutique hotel. 

At BBVA, we’re always on the look-out for ways to use technology for the benefit of our customers. Working with Google Maps Platform helps us build trust and enable our customers to take a proactive role in their spending. We think that context-rich data is an inherent part of truly user-centric mobile banking, and we’re very excited to see where the future will take us.  

For more information on Google Maps Platform, visit our website.