Compass Bank to lay off 80 in Valley

The original version of this story was changed to correct an error. Texas State Bank was founded in 1981, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The Monitor regrets this error.

McALLEN — BBVA Compass Bank plans to lay off 80 employees in the Rio Grande Valley as part of a 10 percent company-wide reduction in workforce, a spokesman said Wednesday.

This is the second round of layoffs since the Birmingham, Ala.-based bank took over Texas State Bank in 2006. The cuts are part of a corporate restructuring to remake Compass with the business model of its parent bank, Spanish-giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argenta SA.

"What we've done is restructure the organization so we are more closely aligned with BBVA," said Ed Bilek, a company spokesman. "We should be able to leverage our global capabilities and resources without harming customers' service."

More than 52 employees from an Edinburg-based operation center were let go last year after BBVA purchased Texas State Bank in June 2006 for $2.16 billion. The job loss is also another setback for the Valley, which is nearing a return to double-digit unemployment.

Hidalgo County's unemployment rate rose nearly a full point in December to 9.1 percent, even though the area continued to add jobs. The McAllen area added 500 jobs in December.

Compass Bank informed some 1,200 individual workers across its six-state workforce on Monday that they would lose their jobs.

Founded in 1981, Texas State Bank came under the Compass banner in 2007 along with two other banks BBVA had recently acquired: State National Bank and Laredo National Bank.

The layoffs are part of an effort to streamline operations among the four banks, Bilek said. Employees will be provided severance packages and help finding new jobs, he added.

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Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.