by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
While some of the country’s top financial institutions are teetering on the verge of collapse for a variety of reasons, one local bank isn’t just surviving — it’s thriving. Thriving because it’s no longer a domestic bank reliant almost exclusively on the volatile American economy.
A little over a year ago, Compass Bank merged with Madrid, Spain-based BBVA. Overnight, the Birmingham, Ala.-based bank went from 397 branches in the Sunbelt states of the United States to being part of an international financial institution that’s the top-ranked bank in Europe in several categories.
Domestically, Compass has 579 branches and assets of $61.2 billion. BBVA has assets of $740 billion, 47 million customers, 8,000 branches in 27 countries and nearly 112,000 employees.
As the final step of the merger, Compass is in the process of rebranding. That process has already started out west and locally the big day is Jan. 15.
“Customers will notice a new logo and signs and we will have a big marketing event,” said Jacksonville Compass President Nelson Bradshaw. “We want to tell the story. Our existing clients will see the same faces.”
Bradshaw took over the 23 North Florida area branches about 60 days ago, succeeding Bon White in the process. White is still with the bank as chair of its advisory board. Bradshaw has been with Compass since September of 2001 and was transferred from Pensacola where he was city president of the Panhandle branches.
According to Bradshaw, BBVA was interested in merging with Compass in order for Compass to run three banks BBVA owns in the Western United States — Texas State Bank, Laredo National Bank and State National Bank.
“Introducing the BBVA Compass brand and successfully integrating the four banks into Compass’ operating systems and product platforms marks a significant step toward delivering on our vision of creating the leading financial services group in the Sunbelt region,” said BBVA County Manager-U.S. and Chairman of Compass Bank Jose Maria Garcia Meyer in a statement. “Customers can look to these new BBVA Compass signs as a ‘blending of the best’ of the BBVA Group, an international financial leader with strength and stability, and Compass Bank, a strong local leader featuring innovative products and services for clients.”
Bradshaw said Compass is in good financial health, something that defies the current trend among banks. He said one of the reasons Compass is growing where others are looking for help from the federal government to stay afloat is Compass avoided making mortgages to questionable borrowers.
“We are in great shape,” said Bradshaw, explaining that many banks are reporting deposits are down 60 percent to 70 percent. “We have gone against the grain in that we are showing a 10 percent growth in profits. Banks are taking losses on investments because they got into subprime loans and took huge losses. We didn’t do that.”
Bradshaw said the bank is going to complete the rebranding process by the end of January. Then, he said, Compass will look at what’s next.
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