BBVA’s mobile payment app, BBVA Wallet, has been downloaded more than one million times since its launch less than two years ago.
Available in four countries, Spain, Mexico, Chile, and the US, it is set to be launched in Turkey this week by Garanti Bank under the BonusFlas brand. BBVA currently has close to a 40% stake in Garanti.
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The total number of downloads in Spain, at the end of Q3 2015, totalled 850,000 while Mexico recorded 164,000 downloads, a mere three months after launch. Chile and the US reported 36,000 and 7,000 downloads respectively.
In Q3 2015, the app was downloaded 358,000 times, a 313% increase on the same period in the previous year.
The Spanish lender now predicts that the Wallet app will be downloaded at least five million times by the end of 2016.
Data has shown that Wallet customers use their card more and spend more. In Spain, Wallet users make 11 card purchases each month, 22% more than plastic users. They also spend 18% more on average each month (435 vs. 369).
Mehmet Sezgin, global head of payments for BBVA, said: "With BBVA Wallet offering a safe, innovative and easy-to-use alternative to cash and plastic, and with over 80% of the world’s payments still in cash, we believe there’s a big opportunity to move from 1 to 5 million downloads by the end of 2016.
"1 million BBVA Wallet downloads is the beginning of a journey. I firmly believe that people using plastic will be in a minority by 2020. As the only bank operating digital wallets in 5 countries around the world, we are at the forefront of the major transformation from plastic to mobile."
