Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. - ADR

Strong Q1 financial performance; profitability and capital up - Net attributable profit ~€3.0bn, +10.8% YoY and +18% QoQ; EPS €0.51 (+12.5% YoY) (buybacks boost EPS). - Return metrics improved: ROTE 21.7% (industry-leading) and ROE 20.7%. - CET1 ratio 12.83%, +13 bps QoQ, comfortably above target range (11.5%–12%)—capital generation strong.

Core revenue strength: NII and fees growing; efficiency improving - Net interest income (NII) +20.2% YoY (also +2.9% QoQ, with first-quarter seasonality/day-count effects). - Loan growth ~17%; spreads supported by price management despite rate compression. - Net fees & commissions +15.5% YoY (also +0.9% QoQ), driven by payments, asset management, and higher insurance/CIB contribution. - Efficiency ratio 38%, -24 bps YoY; excluding ~€125m voluntary redundancy one-off charge, cost growth would have been lower and underlying efficiency better (~36.8% excluding the redundancy impact).

Asset quality: “in line” but with macro uncertainty adjustments - Cost of risk 154 bps (broadly stable QoQ); management added a post-model adjustment (PMA) ~€100m (mainly Spain and Turkey). - Excluding PMA, cost of risk ~147 bps—suggesting underlying asset quality is steadier than reported. - NPL and coverage ratios continue improving YoY and QoQ.