BBVA Compass Plans Lending Offices in New York, Washington

BBVA Compass is ramping up efforts along the East Coast with plans to open loan-production offices in New York and Washington.

The Birmingham, Ala., company has already filed applications with regulators to open loan offices in the cities, the Birmingham Business Journal reported Friday. The bank is currently recruiting managers at each location and expects to open the offices in the fall, pending regulatory approval, said Lee Smith, BBVA Compass' commercial banking executive for its eastern region.

The two offices will focus on commercial banking and wealth management, while also helping the bank serve clients doing business internationally, Smith said. This will be BBVA's first location in Washington. The New York office will be part of an existing BBVA location that focuses on global and investment banking.

"Many of the customers we serve in our seven state Sunbelt footprint also conduct business in other markets," Smith said in an emailed statement. "By placing commercial banking and wealth management teams in [New York and D.C.], we believe we will be able to better support our existing relationships as well as add new client relationships."

BBVA Compass has been expanding from its core territory of the Sunbelt in recent years. It has opened loan-production offices in Chicago and Tampa, Fla., in the past year, after expanding into South Florida in 2011, the Business Journal said.

BBVA Compass, a unit of Spain's $740 billion-asset Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), has more than 700 branches in Texas, Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Colorado and New Mexico.