LOAN PORTFOLIO - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended										9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2011	Jun. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012 Non-FHA/VA Residential Mortgage loans [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Commercial And Industrial Loans [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Commercial Mortgage Loans [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Construction And Commercial Loans [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Consumer Loans [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Residential mortgage loans [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Credit card portfolio acquired (FIA) [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Puerto Rico [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Puerto Rico [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Virgin Islands [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Virgin Islands [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 United States [Member]	May 30, 2012 FIA Card Services (FIA) [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Credit impaired loans [Member]	May 30, 2012 Credit impaired loans [Member] FIA Card Services (FIA) [Member]
Accounts, Notes, Loans and Financing Receivable [Line Items]
Interest income on impaired loans	$ 10,200,000		$ 25,100,000
Purchased credit impaired loans, fair value																		368,900,000	12,700,000	15,700,000
Contractually outstanding principal and interest at acquisition																		406,000,000		34,600,000
Residential mortgage loans acquired												149,500,000
Performing residential mortgage loans sold		156,300,000
Securitization of mortgage loans into mortgage backed securities		165,300,000
Total gross loans held for investment portfolio		10,200,000
Credit risk concentration													85.00%		8.00%		7.00%
Outstanding of credit facilities granted													148,700,000		117,700,000
Increase in outstanding of credit facilities granted														360,100,000		139,400,000
Loans to local financial institutions collateralized by real estate mortgages		258,341,000			273,821,000
Total TDR loans		925,144,000		861,932,000	820,499,000	410,247,000	107,557,000	298,046,000	86,581,000	22,700,000
Outstanding unfunded commitments on TDR loans		4,400,000
Residential mortgage loans as TDRs											5,700,000
Government guaranteed restructured mortgage loans		94,300,000
Minimum Period to be considered for loan to have defaulted		90 days
Financing receivable loans restructured recorded investment accruals		$ 118,000,000