BBVA Compass

BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc.

Banking on a brighter future.
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Banking
Founded	March 2, 1964 (1964-03-02)
Founder	Harry B. Brock Jr.
Headquarters	Daniel Building Birmingham, Alabama
Key people	Onur Genç, CEO
Revenue	$3.376 (2017)
Total assets	$86.504 billion (2017)
Total equity	$12.092 billion (2017)
Number of employees	11,647
Parent	BBVA
Website	www.bbvacompass.com
Footnotes / references [1]

BBVA Compass branch, Austin, Texas

BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc. (formerly Compass Bancshares) is a bank holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. It has been a subsidiary of the Spanish multinational Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria since 2007 and operates chiefly in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas.

The company is the 30th largest bank in the United States.^[2]

BBVA Compass is an official sponsor of the NBA and holds naming rights to BBVA Compass Stadium, a soccer venue in Houston. From 2011 to 2014, BBVA Compass was the title sponsor of the Birmingham Bowl (then called the BBVA Compass Bowl), a college football bowl game played annually in Birmingham.

History

The company was founded on March 2, 1964^[1] as the Central Bank and Trust Company by Harry B. Brock Jr., Schuyler Baker and Hugh Daniel with $1 million of capital. Other founding directors included Frank L. Hardy, John R. Israel, Wendell H. Taylor and Stewart Welch.^[3]

Soon later, Wally Nall, John Evins, Inos Heard, and Tom Jernigan joined the board.

In 1967, the company moved into a new 15-story new headquarters building on 20th Street South.

In 1969, Central made a hostile takeover bid for Decatur's State National Bank, the only bank that could open branches across county lines. The bid was supported by Hugh Agricola and other shareholders of the First National Bank of Gadsden, which had been bought by State National. It was financed by a $10 million line of credit from the Bank of Virginia, which was pioneering its own statewide banking company. By July, Central was able to assemble a voting trust representing about a third of State National's shares in advance of a public offering of $70 per share. The City National Bank of Birmingham, which had also been planning a merger, countered with $80 per share. Central instructed their brokers to buy as many shares as they could up to $85 and ended with enough shares to control State National's board.

In response, Alabama's other major banks filed several court actions in an attempt to block the merger. One action, brought in Federal Court, did succeed with blocking it, on the technicality that Alabama's banking laws, under which the state-chartered bank operated, were incompatible on a few points with Federal banking laws that governed the national banks in the area of mergers. While this finding was being appealed, banking lobbyists were pushing for new legislation that would prevent the merged company from being able to operate in more than one county. Brock and Central Bank's other officers personally lobbied against the bill, and though it would have passed easily, died in committee without reaching the floor for a vote.

The result of the failed bill was that statewide bank holding companies were recognized as a legal possibility for the first time, and the other major banks moved quickly to organize while Central was waiting for a decision on their appeal. Another group, led by Frank Plummer, Norman Pless, and Bob Lowery even stole Brock's intended name for the holding company, First Alabama Bancshares–forerunner of Regions Financial Corporation. Central did win their appeal and formed the Central and State National Corporation, which was soon renamed Central Bancshares of the South. In 1973 this new holding corporation issued a new stock offering to fuel the growth of the statewide network. In 1979, the bank opened a large branch office at 1560 Montgomery Highway in Hoover.

In 1981, Central and a coalition of other bank holding companies successfully lobbied for the Bank Merger Act, allowing statewide bank branching under a single banking company. For the next two years, the combined holdings of Central Bank of the South were the largest single bank in Alabama.

The bank began pursuing interstate banking in the legislature, and was successful, again with the help of other big banks, in passing enabling legislation that took effect in 1986.

The bank's first acquisition out of state was the failing First National Bank of Crosby, Texas in February 1987.

D. Paul Jones took over the CEO position from Brock in 1991. Jones blocked a sale of the bank to First Union that was favored by Brock. Soon afterward, the bank changed its name to Compass Bancshares to reflect its expansion outside the South.

In January 2008, Gary Hegel became CEO of the company.^[4]

On September 7, 2007, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), then second largest bank in Spain, acquired the company. In late 2008, Compass modified its name to BBVA Compass.^[5]

In December 2008, Manolo Sanchez became CEO of the company.

On August 21, 2009, in a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-supervised transaction, BBVA Compass acquired the deposits and other core assets of Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas, which suffered from bank failure. The deal gave BBVA Compass a presence in California and expanded an existing presence in Texas.^[6]

In 2013, BBVA further expanded its regional presence with the opening of BBVA Compass Plaza, a 312,000 square foot office building in Houston.^[7]

In 2009, the bank launched the BBVA Compass ClearPoints Card, a rewards card with an associated mobile app that notably allows for real-time, in-person redemption of rewards points.^[8]

BBVA Compass was one of over 30 banks accused of improperly manipulating customers’ checking account transactions to generate excess overdraft fees by posting them in highest-to-lowest dollar amount instead of in chronological order. In July 2012, the bank agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle the lawsuit.^[9]

In 2014, BBVA Compass disclosed that the results of its periodic examination for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) would probably restrict its ability to engage in additional mergers and acquisitions until after its next scheduled examination.^[10][11] Since that disclosure, BBVA Compass has announced several actions to address the issues of community reinvestment, including committing $11 billion to community development lending, and retaining additional staff at the regional and national level to manage community development investment.^[12][13][14]

In December 2016, Onur Genç became CEO of the company.^[15]

References