The BBVA Group today announced that it has received all necessary regulatory approvals to move forward with integrating its four United States subsidiary banks into one financial institution.
The result of the mergers will make Compass Bank the Sunbelt region’s largest financial institution and give BBVA a leadership position in a geographic region that continues to grow faster than the United States as a whole and whose economy continues to outperform other regions.
The application to merge The Laredo National Bank, State National Bank and Texas State Bank with Compass Bank was approved by The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta late last week.
“This final approval allows us to merge our four banks into a single charter and to integrate the management teams,” said Jose Maria Garcia Meyer, Chairman of Compass Bank and General Manager of BBVA in the United States. “With a streamlined management and organizational structure in place, combined with our becoming one unified institution, we will be able to more quickly implement BBVA’s proven business model in the U.S. and align ourselves with BBVA’s global presence.”
This approval marks the final step necessary for BBVA subsidiary Compass Bancshares to integrate its four subsidiary banks into a single organization. In accordance with the integration plan presented to investors, the first bank conversion will bring State National Bank into Compass by the end of the first quarter of this year, followed by Texas State Bank and The Laredo National Bank before the end of the fourth quarter.
“The integration plan we presented at Investor Day is on track and proceeding slightly ahead of plan,” said Compass CEO Gary Hegel. “In fact, with this approval we will convert State National Bank within a week and move ahead with plans to fully integrate Texas State and The Laredo National Bank as well. Soon all our customers will enjoy a greater choice of innovative products and services for themselves and their businesses.”
Compass Bank will rank as the fourth largest bank in Texas and among the top 25 largest banks in the United States based on deposit market share. The company will have total assets of approximately $58.6 billion and will operate 593 branches across a six-state Sunbelt Region including: 91 in Alabama, 76 in Arizona, 33 in Colorado, 44 in Florida, 21 in New Mexico and 328 in Texas. The integration of the four banks is expected to be complete by the end of 2008.
Garcia Meyer and Hegel lead a seasoned management team with more than 200 years of combined banking and financial services experience along with veteran local leadership in each of the communities it serves across the Sunbelt.
Compass Bancshares is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BBVA (NYSE: BBV) (MAD: BBVA). BBVA is a financial services group with more than $700 billion in total assets, 42 million clients, 7,900 branches and approximately 111,000 employees in more than 30 countries. BBVA provides its customers around the world with a full range of financial services, including commercial and wholesale banking, retail banking services, consumer loans, mortgages, credit cards, securities brokerage, wealth management, pension plan management and insurance. The BBVA Group maintains a leadership position in Spain, Mexico, Latin America and the Sunbelt Region of the United States as well as operations in China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Contacts:
Thomas Graham, Communications
832-813-7704
or 512-294-7111
thomas.graham@compassbank.com
www.compassbank.com
