BBVA Compass
BBVA Compass (later simplified to BBVA) was the US-based division of Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, operating from 2007 to 2021, when the division was sold to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based PNC Bank.
Though BBVA had staffed a New York City office since 1988 and provided remittance services along the U.S./Mexico border after acquiring Mexico's Banco de Comercio (Bancomer) in 1994, it only entered the US banking market with the purchase of the 4-branch Valley Bank in Moreno Valley, California in 2004. In order to extend its reach in Spanish-speaking communities familiar with its Bancomer brand, BBVA acquired three banks in South Texas between 2005 and 2007: Laredo National Bank (32 branches), Texas State Bank (80 branches) and State National Bank (44 branches).
During that period, BBVA expanded its growth strategy beyond the Spanish-speaking market, seeking inroads in the general banking market over a larger territory. On February 16, 2007 BBVA announced that it had agreed to purchase Birmingham's Compass Bank, which then had 422 branches in 6 Southern states, including a large presence in Texas. The sale price was announced as $9.6 billion, or $71.82 per share.
BBVA rebranded the newly-acquired operations under the BBVA Compass name and adopted Compass' administrative offices in the Daniel Building for its headquarters offices, with Compass' D. Paul Jones as CEO. In addition, Compass Bank's Harry B. Brock Administrative Center in Lakeview expanded its role as the technology center for the growing bank chain.
The company's older Texas acquisitions continued to be overseen from a "BBVA USA" headquarters in Woodlands, Texas near Houston, and chairman José María García Meyer oversaw both operations from that office. On January 1, 2008, former Compass chief financial officer Gary Hegel succeeded D. Paul Jones as CEO of BBVA Compass. Over the course of that year he oversaw the incorporation of BBVA USA's Texas-based banks into the BBVA Compass network.
Though stated publicly in January that, "Compass will remain based in Birmingham," in reality the ongoing process of merging BBVA USA with BBVA Compass resulted in the combined company's executive administrative center quietly migrating into the Woodlands offices, while many large departmental offices and the bank's technical operations were concentrated in Birmingham. BBVA's global presence helped to shield its overall balance sheet from the effects of the Great Recession, but also made it ineligible for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) created under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
At the end of 2008 BBVA Compass reported total assets of approximately $61.2 billion, and operated 579 branch offices with more than 12,000 employees. During the course of that year, the bank laid off approximately 10% of its workforce to reduce its expenses in the face of depressed economic activity. In August, BBVA Compass acquired the failed Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas through the FDIC's receivership, adding $12 billion in assets and 120 branches in Texas and California to its network.
From 2010 to 2013 the bank served as title sponsor of the Birmingham Bowl.
In 2019 BBVA Compass held $91 billion in assets and operated 672 full-service banking offices in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. BBVA's United States banking division was one of the nation's 30 largest banks, and was a member of the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Select Dividend Index.
BBVA Compass and its siblings (Francés in Argentina, Bancomer in Mexico, and Continental in Peru) were rebranded as BBVA in 2019. In November 2020 BBVA announced the sale of its US operations to PNC Bank of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for $11.6 billion. The sale is set to close in 2021.
With the acquisition, PNC became the 5th largest bank in the United States with $550 billion in assets.
Chief executives
- D. Paul Jones, 2007–January 2008
- Gary Hegel, January–November 2008
- Manolo Sánchez, 2008–2017
- Onur Genç, 2017–January 2019
- Javier Soler, January 2019–May 2021
References
- Underwood, Jerry (November 17, 2008) "[https://www.al.com/businessnews/2008/11/compass_says_gary_hegel_steps.html Compass says Gary Hegel steps down as CEO, replaced by Texas executive for BBVA." The Birmingham News
- Williams, Roy L. (August 29, 2010) "On the record: Manolo Sanchez, president and CEO of BBVA Compass" The Birmingham News
- Coker, Angel (April 24, 2019) "BBVA Compass to be rebranded to BBVA." Birmingham Business Journal
- Thornton, William (June 10, 2019) "New day for BBVA: Bank’s global brand strategy launches." The Birmingham News
- "PNC to buy BBVA's U.S. operations for $11.6B." (November 16, 2020) Birmingham Business Journal
- Thornton, William (November 17, 2020) "What does PNC’s acquisition of BBVA mean for Birmingham." The Birmingham News