South America manages the Group’s banking and insurance businesses in the region. The area is quite diversified and has units operating in practically every South American country.
In 2013 a number of agreements were concluded to sell BBVA’s stake in the different pension fund administrators (AFPs) in the area. In April 2013 the sale of the AFPs in Colombia and Peru (both called Horizonte) were concluded, and so was the sale of the AFP in Chile (Provida) in October. In addition, the sale of BBVA Panama was concluded in December. BBVA Panama accounted for just under 0.3% of the Group’s total assets. It had 19 branches and 391 employees according to data as of the close of June 2013. Its small size, with a market share of around 3% as of December 31, 2012, limits the possibility of implementing the BBVA model, which aims for large markets and requires a bigger market share.
BBVA has been selected as the best financial institution to work for in Latin America within the multinational corporations category, according to the Great Place To Work® 2013 ranking. The more than 2,200 companies participating have been assessed by their workers, in total, nearly 3.5 million people from over 20 countries.
