BBVA Compass will drop Compass from its name and be known simply as BBVA, the company said on Wednesday.
The subtle renaming is part of a broader change by its Spanish parent company Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria to unify its brand worldwide. In the months ahead, BBVA is dropping its local names in Argentina, Mexico, Peru and the U.S.
“Becoming BBVA is simply the next step in what we’ve always said is an ongoing digital transformation process,” Javier Rodríguez Soler, the president and CEO of the $90 billion-asset BBVA Compass, said in a press release. “Operating under a single brand further brings the power and strength of BBVA around the world to our clients here in the U.S. This represents the realization of becoming a true digital entity that enables customers to manage their financial lives across a full spectrum of services.”
BBVA originally moved into the U.S. in 2006 with the acquisition of two smaller banks in Texas, then quickly bulked up here
That deal gave BBVA more than 600 branches in the southern U.S. Many of the branches are near the border with Mexico, where it already had a franchise.
BBVA CEO Onur Genç said the new name would “better convey our increasingly digital and global reality” to the bank’s 75 million customers worldwide.
The company would not say when the name change will become official, but did say it would be rolled out in phases across its branches and digital platforms. A company spokeswoman told American Banker that the digital transition will be completed before the branches are rebranded.
More than half of BBVA Compass' branches are in Texas, where the bank has the No. 5 deposit share, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The other branches are in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida and New Mexico.
