Banco de Vizcaya was set up in 1901 as a mixed trading and investment bank, and early on it penetrated the Spanish industrial and energy sector, creating an important portfolio of securities. The industrial reconversion of the late 1970s and early 1980s and the liberalisation measures in the sector, brought about by the arrival of democracy and the entry into the EEC, led to a series of bank mergers. Banco de Vizcaya merged with Banco de Bilbao to form BBV (1988), which later acquired the privatised public group, Corporación Bancaria Argentaria, to form BBVA (1999).
Banco de Vizcaya was founded as a public limited company and mixed bank - granting short-term credit, discounting bills and investing in public debt and industrial securities - in Bilbao in 1901 with a registered capital of 15 million pesetas, of which only half was initially disbursed. In 1903 it merged with Banco Vascongado through an exchange of 9 Vizcaya shares for 2 Vascongado shares and in 1915 it acquired the banking house C. Jacquet e hijos de Bilbao. Shortly after the Banco de Vizcaya was set up, it opened a savings bank and set up 15 branches in Bizkaia and one in Castro Urdiales. Its expansion outside the province began in 1918, when it acquired the "Luis Roy, sobrino" bank in Madrid, which became the first Vizcaya branch in the capital. In 1921 it opened branches in San Sebastián, Barcelona and Valencia, in the latter two cities by absorbing the branches of the London County Westminster Bank; in 1923 in Vitoria, in 1925 in Tarragona, in 1929 in Alicante, in 1930 in Zaragoza, in 1931 in Castellón de la Plana and in 1936 in Córdoba. At the same time, especially in Bizkaia, Gipukoa, Levante and Catalonia, it increased the number of its agencies (two in Bilbao in 1923). In 1935 it had seventy-five branches and one hundred and twenty-five agencies.
The bank emphasised its expansion in exporting regions, with the aim of facilitating export credit but also to be close to customers with access to foreign currency. The agencies, the savings bank and the branches were intended to collect savings through deposits for investment by the head office, generally for the medium and long term. Vizcaya's portfolio quickly ( 1901 and 1914) changed from shares and bonds of domestic and foreign railways and public debt to shares and bonds of companies engaged in energy production. Its main investments were directed towards the nascent hydroelectric sector, participating in the creation of Hidroeléctrica Ibérica (1901), Hidroeléctrica Española (1907), Electra de Viesgo (1906)... being described as the "electric bank par excellence". Its strong portfolio of energy and industrial companies, together with the custody of securities of many of its customers, enabled it to have a notable presence on the boards of directors of the main Spanish public limited companies and to participate very directly in business decisions. As for almost all Spanish banks, the period of the First World War was a time of significant profits, with which it continued its penetration of the Spanish industrial fabric.
After the Civil War, the measures of the Franco regime were particularly favourable to private banking. The Banking Law of 1946, which continued the spirit of the Cambó Law of 29 December 1921, maintained the banking status quo: only those who were bankers or banks at the time the law was enacted could operate as such. The conditions imposed for the opening of a new bank de facto made this impossible. This way of reducing competition to existing banks or banking houses was accentuated by prohibiting or severely limiting the opening of new branches and fixing interest rates and the amount of commissions. At the same time, the ability of the Autonomous Regions to compete with private banks in granting credit was almost completely nullified, reduced to credit for construction and the underwriting of public or government-specified corporate bonds. The counterpart was having to underwrite public debt, albeit of a pledgeable nature. To get round the ban on setting up branches, Banco de Vizcaya took over Banca Palacios in Logroño (1958) and Banca Vilella, which had an extensive network of branches in Catalonia (1968), and converted them into branches.
In 1956 it had 86 branches, 65 city branches and 109 village branches. From its initial share capital of 15 million pesetas, only half of which had been paid up in 1901, by 1956 it had grown to 300 paid-up and registered shares, of which 57 had been paid out of profits. Its securities portfolio, excluding public funds, amounted to 1,400,000,000 pesetas in 1901 and reached 1,586 million pesetas in 1955. Dividends distributed in 1901 amounted to 112,507 pesetas and in 1955 reached 49,400,000 pesetas. Its liquid profits grew strongly from 1940 onwards. Deposits, which in 1940 amounted to 1,000 million pesetas, reached 20,000 million pesetas in 1960. The autarchy was also a period of business promotion in key sectors such as textiles, paper and real estate. Supported or forced by the banking law of 1962, Indubán was created as an exclusively industrial bank and in the sixties and seventies it opened offices in Mexico, New York and later in Amsterdam and London.
With the arrival of democracy, the banking crisis of 1978-1984 and the entry into the EEC, Spanish banks had to adapt to a more competitive market which required a considerably larger volume of capital in order to be able to take on international loans. Banco de Vizcaya had to adapt to these profound changes. Taking advantage of the banking crisis, it acquired Banco de Crédito Comercial (1980), Banco Meridional and Banco de Préstamo y Ahorro (1981), Banco Occidental (1982) and Banca Catalana (1984). In 1988 it merged with Banco de Bilbao after the failure of its takeover bid for Banesto, creating BBV which, in 1999, acquired Corporación Bancaria Argentaria, which came from the merger of the public bank, Banco Exterior and Caja Postal de Ahorros, creating BBVA.