FF News Logo
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Bottomline x FFNews

Breaking News

Fintech Meetup 2026: What’s Your Favourite Thing About Vegas? Backbase Launches the AI-Native Banking OS – Defining a New Category for Agentic Banking Eiendomskreditt Selects Knowit and Mambu to Modernise Its Core Banking Platform Temenos and Bain Identify Technology Megatrends Redefining the Future of Banking NatWest Launches Venture Banking to Help Scale the UK’s Innovation Economy and Drive Future Growth Nexi and Visa partner to Deliver Nexi Ready Issuing Services in Germany Origami Risk Expands Global Footprint with New Office in the Dominican Republic Profitability Emerges as the Top Priority Managing General Agents (MGAs) CAPIS and STP Launch Outsourced Trading and Operations Model for Buy-Side Firms Maine Bankers Association Endorses Stablecore as Digital Asset Technology Provider Plasma and Ramp Partner to Bring Stablecoins Into Payroll and Spend Through Plasma One Horizon Trading Solutions Launches FixConnect to Transform FIX Connectivity and Streamline Onboarding Nium and Coinbase Partner to Power Global Stablecoin Payments and Settlement ClearTax Approved as UAE E-Invoicing Accredited Service Provider as Enterprises Accelerate Readiness Ahead of July 2026 Deadline InsurTech NY: DataHaven on Eliminating Data Silos to Achieve a Single Source of Truth

February 25 2016

Open API! Shamir Karkal to Head BBVA’s New Developer Platform

Share this post:

Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp

Former CFO and co-founder of Simple, Shamir Karkal has joined BBVA in a new role: head of Open APIs.

In a blog post discussing the move, Karkal described his vision for BBVA’s Open APIs to Amazon Web Services, using the concept of an “AWS of banking.” Pointing out that Amazon had built “the world’s fastest-growing technology business” in AWS by granting 3rd party access to its platform, Karkal said:

BBVA has a huge opportunity to do the same – open up our core platform and services, in turn enabling others to build companies on top of these and thereby helping us build a new business.

BBVA_ShamirKarkalKarkal credits BBVA’s current initiatives in this direction – both its Open Talent hackathons and collaborations with companies like Dwolla. To get the Open APIs project underway, BBVA has set up a closed group of partners to build new applications before opening up the project to outside developers. Check out BBVA’s invite-only Alpha.

Karkal co-founded Simple in 2010 along with Josh Reich (CEO) and Alex Payne (CTO). The company, which previewed its technology as Bank Simple at FinovateFall 2011, was acquired by BBVA in February 2014. Previous to Simple, Karkal was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. With a background in software engineering, he has an MBA in Finance from the Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

Known as one of the more technically innovative banks in Europe, BBVA was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. The company has more than 117,000 employees in more than 30 countries, and more than 47 million customers. BBVA demonstrated its stock market sentiment analysis technology, Stockbuzz, at FinovateEurope 2013.

  1. Fintech Meetup 2026: What’s Your Favourite Thing About Vegas?

    Event Videos 2026

     Read more
  2. Backbase Launches the AI-Native Banking OS – Defining a New Category for Agentic Banking

    Fintech

     Read more
  3. Eiendomskreditt Selects Knowit and Mambu to Modernise Its Core Banking Platform

    Fintech

     Read more
  4. Temenos and Bain Identify Technology Megatrends Redefining the Future of Banking

    Fintech

     Read more
  5. NatWest Launches Venture Banking to Help Scale the UK’s Innovation Economy and Drive Future Growth

    Fintech

     Read more
Operational Resilience Amsterdam x FFNews