Fair Value of Financial Instruments - Unpaid Principle Balances (Details) - Residential mortgage loans held for sale - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Mar. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Fair Value, Option, Quantitative Disclosures [Line Items]
Aggregate Fair Value	$ 96,784	$ 70,582
Aggregate Unpaid Principal Balance	92,882	68,553
Difference	$ 3,902	$ 2,029

This item represents the difference between the aggregate fair value and the aggregate unpaid principal balance of loans and long-term receivables (other than securities categorized as trading, available-for-sale or held-to-maturity) that have contractual principal amounts and for which the fair value option has been elected.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 825
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 28
-Subparagraph (d)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6957238&loc=d3e14064-108612

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

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

- Definition

Fair value portion of mortgage loans held-for-sale.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

This is the principal amount outstanding for loans which are in the process of being securitized as of the date of the statement of financial position (across all types of loans).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 860
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51814546&loc=d3e107314-111719

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_EligibleItemOrGroupForFairValueOptionAxis=bbva_LoansHeldforSaleMortgagesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: