By Cristina Roca 

Shares in Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA traded lower Thursday afternoon after the bank set goals as part of its new 2021-24 plan and defended plans to increase its exposure to a volatile market.

The Spanish lender said it will target a return on tangible equity--a key profitability metric--of 14% in 2024. Cost-to-income ratio should improve to 42% in 2024. It also upgraded its distribution policy to 40%-50% of its consolidated ordinary profit annually, excluding extraordinary items, from 35%-40% previously.

The 2024 targets were largely in line with what the market had expected, Citi analysts said in a note.

Separately on Thursday, Turkey's central bank, under pressure from the country's president, cut its benchmark interest rate to 15% despite an acceleration in the inflation rate. Economists saw the move as unwise. The Turkish lira tumbled after the announcement.

BBVA said it wants to continue being the best bank in Turkey, one of its main markets, as part of its plan. It already signaled an appetite to double down on the country earlier this week, when it launched an offer to buy out the 50.15% of Turkish bank Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS it didn't already own.

BBVA management defended the decision Thursday during its investor day, saying Garanti's business is resilient. The company's stock tends to overreact when there is bad news, Chairman Carlos Torres Vila said, adding that Thursday's Turkish rate cut was broadly expected.

At GMT 1504, shares in BBVA were down 6% at EUR5.41.

BBVA Chief Executive Onur Genç, who was formerly Garanti's deputy CEO, said earlier this week that Turkey's growth potential was too good to ignore despite the higher risk that doing business there entails.

BBVA, Spain's second-largest bank by assets, said that it will boost customer acquisition in its bid to become larger and more profitable. It expects to add 10 million target clients--defined as valuable clients the bank wants to grow and retain--through 2024.

The bank backed its target of maintaining a fully-loaded common equity tier 1 ratio between 11.5% and 12%.

In its home market of Spain, BBVA will prioritize the most profitable products, namely consumer finance, small and medium businesses and commercial banking.

BBVA said its distribution policy will be implemented via an interim and final dividend each year, with the possibility of buybacks. The 3.5 billion euro ($3.96 billion) buyback program that the bank announced a few weeks ago is considered extraordinary, and is thus excluded from the policy. An initial EUR1.5 billion tranche of the buyback will start shortly after the investor day, BBVA said.

Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@wsj.com