In conversation with Murat Kalkan

Read time: 4 Minutes

Murat Kalkan, Global Head of Digital Banks at BBVA, attended FIBE for an Opening Keynote Talk on “Incumbents vs. Neobanks: How AI Accelerates the Race as Retail Banking Becomes Global”.

In Italy you had great success with BBVA digital, already targeting 1 million customers for this year. What were the biggest lessons from that experience that you're now applying to your expansion in Germany?

Murat Kalkan: We are very, very happy with the trajectory ­– both in Germany and in Italy. After four years, we have around 900,000 customers, and this year we are firmly heading towards 1 million customers.

The main learning from Italy is that our strategy, our playbook, works in a European context. Obviously, we need to fine-tune certain things for the German market. 

To be very transparent, when we started in Italy, we did not have the price aspect as prominent as it is now, in terms of deposits. We were already offering no-fee accounts, but what also made a difference – in terms of the customer segments we were acquiring – was offering a deposit interest rate. That attracts a different, wealthier profile of customers. So that is one learning we want to apply in Germany, where there is also a bigger deposit pool.

Going back to the broader picture, we learned that combining the trust and product advantages of an incumbent with the digital experience, pricing transparency, and appeal of a neobank is super powerful.

Another new insight on the tactical, customer experience side is about having human customer service. 

In Italy, Corriere della Sera runs a customer service survey with Statista every two years, the last edition was the 2025/2026 ranking. BBVA was ranked the best across both the banks and digital banks categories, and in every single sub-category. I think that has been crucial for our customer feedback in Italy, driving the real success case we have there. That's why we are focused on it in Germany as well.

Following up on that – many neobanks are pushing heavily on AI agents in customer service, but from what you said, BBVA's approach is to put AI in service of your employees, not to replace them. The human aspect stays central. Is that right?

Kalkan: Absolutely. To narrow it down, we want to empower employees. All employees, and developers, especially. That's one aspect. 

We want to rewire processes with AI.On the customer-facing side, when a customer wants to talk to a human, that will never change – because we believe that's a differentiator. So, we will keep human customer service. 

We will empower it with AI insights about the client's context, AI insights about the customer's sentiment, and so on – drafting answers, classifying calls, summarising, enabling next steps. 

That doesn't mean we won't have an AI customer service layer. We have Blue, our AI assistant in the app. Not yet in Germany, but in Spain and Mexico it is already resolving so many queries. However, the moment a customer wants to talk to a human, we don't put friction in the way. 

I don't want to give bank examples, but even in transportation– think for example about taxi companies – when you have a problem, you get dragged through FAQ links and never reach a human. That's damaging for trust.

It all goes back to trust. When you have a serious problem, you need an empathetic human. AI is very strong, AI is empathic even, but talking to a robot is not the same as talking to another human who can make a real difference.

That's very relevant. Especially with a digital-first, branchless model, that human dimension becomes even more of a differentiator. It's how you prove to customers that you're genuinely there for them.

On a slightly different note: you've spoken a lot about attracting customers, but what about talent? As a young executive at one of Europe's largest institutions, you probably understand better than most what ambitious tech and finance professionals are looking for. For those attracted by the energy of fintech startups – what's your pitch for BBVA Digital? Is it a hard sell?

Kalkan: That's a very good point. The employee proposition is slightly different between a neobank, BBVA, and a traditional incumbent – and for BBVA Digital, it's even more differentiated. On the neobank side, you get the excitement of building something completely new, as a startup. At a traditional incumbent you typically don't get that, but you get more security and stability. 

With BBVA Digital Banks, we bring these two worlds together. Because the digital bank unit is essentially a fintech inside BBVA, people are extremely excited to build the next digital bank, and it moves at a super rapid pace. We built Germany in under 12 months – not just one product, but all the products I mentioned on stage. That's only possible with a team that acts with real agility and speed.

So, you get the energy you'd find in a neobank, but with the safety of a global banking institution backing you up.

In a way, it's a similar pitch as for customers – trying to offer the best of both worlds, right?

Kalkan: Exactly. You want that high-paced, agile innovation of disrupting a new market, but you also want safety in your job. The combination of the two is where our proposition lands. 

To be very frank, in the beginning I thought that big upside opportunities at early-stage fintechs would be very attractive for the best talent. But over time, as different fintechs didn't work out, people realised that safety matters too. 

We're at a point in the market's evolution where strong talent wants both upside, safety, and stability. That's exactly where we play.