Foreign trade is a major component of Argentina’s economy. In 2021, imports and exports combined to represent 45% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to INDEC (link resides outside of ibm.com), the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina. And BBVA, the country’s oldest private bank, is a leading engine of Argentina’s foreign trade transactions.

So, when the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine precipitated rapid economic changes around the world, prompting the Central Bank of Argentina to implement new, emergency regulations on foreign trade, BBVA and its competitors had very little time to adapt.

“We have had so many modifications to our processes caused by the changes in foreign trade rules and government pressure in the country,” explains Leonardo Rojas, BBVA Argentina’s Head of Operations. On a typical day, analysts on the bank’s Foreign Trade Operations team process more than 400 trade-related transactions, many for corporate customers and some valued in the millions of dollars. The new regulations required companies to present additional documentation and justifications before making payments abroad, which in turn necessitated numerous new control processes for BBVA.

The processes were so new, they needed to be done manually. Overall transaction processing time jumped to five or six days, when BBVA wanted to limit it to two. “International trade operations are carried out with US dollars,” explains Rojas. “The exchange rate between US dollars and Argentine pesos fluctuates so much that it is important to complete the operation quickly,” explains Rojas. “For each day it takes to process, the costs for the client could increase due to the rate changes.”

And adding more headcount was not a viable option. “Applying more complex controls meant more workload for the team,” says Rojas, “but adding more analysts would result in higher operating costs and higher commissions for our customers. The market for foreign trade analysts is scarce, and it is a highly demanded profile.”

Rojas and coworker Mauricio Vidaurrázaga, Head of Business Execution and Process Engineering, wanted to try to regain efficiencies by optimizing processes. They suspected that unintentional rework occurred while the team performed all of the newly mandated checks and controls on top of their traditional processes. But they needed a way to pinpoint exactly where this was happening.

All this process analysis could have taken weeks, had the BBVA team attempted it manually. Instead, it took a couple of days, and automatically generated insights that the bank used to make valuable improvements.   

BBVA reduced the processing time for foreign trade transactions by more than 70%, from five or six days to one or two. “We also gained in terms of team productivity,” says Rojas. “We can process 20% more transactions, while still complying with all regulatory requirements, and without expanding the team.”  

And if regulations change again tomorrow, BBVA will be prepared. “With what’s happening in the economy and having the capacity to keep up with all the changes, Process Mining was essential for our clients and us in a context where the acquisition and the currency rate change every day. We can analyze processes faster than ever before,” says Rojas.

BBVA will continue to apply Process Mining to identify opportunities for greater efficiency, and not just in foreign trade. “We’re getting requests from other teams,” says Vidaurrázaga. “They want to do what we’ve done.”  

Founded in 1886 in Buenos Aires, BBVA Argentina (link resides outside of ibm.com) is the oldest private bank in Argentina. It’s a subsidiary of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A., its main shareholder since 1996. BBVA Argentina offers retail and corporate banking to a vast customer base, from individuals and SMEs to large companies.