Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria is to ramp up its Asian headcount by close to a fifth as it targets the retail banking and wealth management markets in the region, Bloomberg reports.

The group, which already has an Asian headcount of 300, plans to recruit an additional 50 employees, Gonzalo Torano, the recently-appointed head of the Asia-Pacific region, told the publication in an interview in Hong Kong.

BBVA is to target Asia’s high net worth clients via its partnership with China Citic Bank, through which it is developing a Chinese offering including private banking, auto finance, insurance and pension services. The alliance with Citic, in which BBVA hold a 15 per cent stake, dates back to 2009.

BBVA is eyeing Chinese clients with between $200,000 and $500,000 in investable assets, Torano told the news service.

As part of its Asia-Pacific expansion plans BBVA is understood to have sought regulatory approval to promote its representative offices in Seoul, Sydney and Taipei to office status.

A spokesperson for BBVA confirmed the details of the report when contacted by WealthBriefing on the matter.

In other recent developments at BBVA, earlier this month its US susbsidiary BBVA Compass promoted Cedric Buchanon to the role of president of the Denver City branch. Buchanon, who assumed this new post after serving for five years as senior vice president for commercial banking, will be responsible for all corporate banking and specialty group activities, while expanding the company's corporate relationships in the Denver metropolitan market. In addition, he will also be working closely with BBVA Compass' retail and wealth management units in both the Denver and Boulder markets.