BBVA: Designing Scalable, Friction-Free Journeys

Carmela Gómez Castelao from BBVA explained why the bank’s approach to embedded finance always begins with one principle: co-creation, not pre-packaged products. Rather than pushing standardised solutions, BBVA works hand-in-hand with partners to build experiences shaped entirely around the partner’s ecosystem and the needs of their customers.

Gómez emphasised that true customer-centric design means mapping the full journey end-to-end — not just the “happy path” where everything works perfectly, but all the friction points that can derail an experience. What happens if a payment fails? If a customer wants to change their financing option? If they need to return a product while using a third-party platform and aren’t sure how their bank fits into that process?
Identifying and solving these edge-case uncertainties, she said, is what makes a digital experience resilient, predictable, and trustworthy.

Once the complete journey is defined, BBVA co-builds the solution with partners and tests its adaptability across markets. And in most cases, these solutions scale remarkably well. A customer in Mexico and a customer in Spain may live in very different environments, but their expectations around convenience, security, and seamless service are strikingly similar — whether as retail consumers or as businesses.

This is why BBVA designs APIs and financial capabilities to be globally scalable from day one. A financing-at-checkout API, for example, can be deployed across multiple countries with only minor localisation. That not only saves time and resources, but ensures customers worldwide enjoy a consistent, trusted experience.

For BBVA, the winning formula is clear:
local adaptability + global scalability = universal customer value.
It’s a blueprint that enables BBVA and its partners to build solutions that work across markets, cultures, and customer segments — without losing the nuance that makes each experience feel personal.