Venezuela is a "great opportunity" for BBVA, bank's chairman says

MADRID, Jan 21 (Reuters) - BBVA BBVA.MC, the only major foreign bank with a significant presence in Venezuela, is well positioned to take advantage of new business opportunities following the U.S. intervention in the country with the world's largest oil reserves, its chairmain said.

Venezuela is under an interim government after the United States captured President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. This offers potential opportunities for international banks, though analysts stressed there would still be significant challenges to doing business.

"In the future, if greater stability is achieved, we are very well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that arise, as we are the only foreign-owned private bank in the country, with a deep understanding of it thanks to our long presence there," BBVA's Carlos Torres told Expansion in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"With stability, Venezuela is a great opportunity," Torres

said in the interview published on Wednesday.

BBVA Provincial, where BBVA owns a 55% stake, has around 1,900 employees, some 160 branches and serves more than three million customers.