August 28, 2009

As many U.S. banks grapple with bad investments and weakened loan portfolios, Spanish-owned BBVA Compass is plotting an American expansion. Exhibit A is the bank's acquisition last week of Guaranty Bank, the failed Austin-based lender, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Guaranty deal made BBVA Compass the 15th-largest U.S. commercial bank, with about $49 billion in total deposits and 767 branches stretching across the Sun Belt from Florida to California.

More than 400 of its branches are in Texas, where it ranks as the fourth-largest bank by deposits. And $7.3 billion of its deposits are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it said."The U.S. is really the frontier of growth for BBVA right now," said Manolo Sanchez, president and chief executive of BBVA Compass. "I think we will be a household brand for the banking industry going forward."