Loans and Allowance for Loan Losses - Classified as troubled debt restructurings (Details) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2016 USD ($) Contract	Mar. 31, 2015 USD ($) Contract
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of contracts, covered \| Contract	0	1
Post modification outstanding recorded investment, covered \| $	$ 0	$ 5
Number of subsequent default contracts, covered \| Contract	0	0
Recorded investment at subsequent default, covered \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Commercial, Financial and Agricultural
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	3	1
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 262	$ 75
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	0
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Commercial Real Estate \| Real estate – construction
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	1	0
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 3,392	$ 0
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	0
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Commercial Real Estate \| Mortgage
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	3	0
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 1,275	$ 0
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	1
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 178
Residential \| Mortgage
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	17	11
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 2,338	$ 1,740
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	4
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 647
Residential \| Equity lines of credit
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	8	31
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 977	$ 1,913
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	0
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Residential \| Equity loans
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	3	14
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 103	$ 718
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	2
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 161
Consumer \| Credit card
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	0	0
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	0
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Consumer \| Consumer direct
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	0	0
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	0
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 0
Consumer \| Consumer indirect
Financing Receivable, Modifications [Line Items]
Number of Contracts \| Contract	30	22
Post-Modification Outstanding Recorded Investment \| $	$ 515	$ 379
Number of subsequent default contracts \| Contract	0	1
Recorded investment at subsequent default \| $	$ 0	$ 18

Financing Receivable, Covered, Modifications, Number of Contracts

No definition available.

Name:	bbva_FinancingReceivableCoveredModificationsNumberofContracts
Namespace Prefix:	bbva_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Financing Receivable, Covered, Modifications, Post-Modification Recorded Investment

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	bbva_FinancingReceivableCoveredModificationsPostModificationRecordedInvestment
Namespace Prefix:	bbva_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Financing Receivable, Covered, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Number of Contracts

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	bbva_FinancingReceivableCoveredModificationsSubsequentDefaultNumberofContracts
Namespace Prefix:	bbva_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Financing Receivable, Covered, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	bbva_FinancingReceivableCoveredModificationsSubsequentDefaultRecordedInvestment
Namespace Prefix:	bbva_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableModificationsLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Number of financing receivables that have been modified by troubled debt restructurings.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 310
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 33
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=49124121&loc=SL6953676-111524

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableModificationsNumberOfContracts2
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Post-modification amount of investment in financing receivables modified by troubled debt restructurings.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableModificationsPostModificationRecordedInvestment2
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Number of financing receivables that have been modified by troubled debt restructurings within the previous 12 months and for which there was a payment default.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 310
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 34
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=49124121&loc=SL6953682-111524

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableModificationsSubsequentDefaultNumberOfContracts1
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of investment related to financing receivables modified by troubled debt restructurings within the previous 12 months, for which there was a payment default.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableModificationsSubsequentDefaultRecordedInvestment1
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivablePortfolioSegmentAxis=bbva_CommercialFinancialandAgriculturalLoanPortfolioMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivablePortfolioSegmentAxis=us-gaap_CommercialRealEstatePortfolioSegmentMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableRecordedInvestmentByClassOfFinancingReceivableAxis=us-gaap_ConstructionLoansMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableRecordedInvestmentByClassOfFinancingReceivableAxis=us-gaap_MortgageReceivablesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivablePortfolioSegmentAxis=us-gaap_ResidentialPortfolioSegmentMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableRecordedInvestmentByClassOfFinancingReceivableAxis=us-gaap_HomeEquityMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableRecordedInvestmentByClassOfFinancingReceivableAxis=us-gaap_HomeEquityLoanMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivablePortfolioSegmentAxis=us-gaap_ConsumerPortfolioSegmentMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableRecordedInvestmentByClassOfFinancingReceivableAxis=us-gaap_CreditCardReceivablesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableRecordedInvestmentByClassOfFinancingReceivableAxis=bbva_DirectConsumerReceivablesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancingReceivableRecordedInvestmentByClassOfFinancingReceivableAxis=bbva_IndirectConsumerReceivablesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: