Income Taxes - Summary of Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities (Detail) (USD $) In Thousands, unless otherwise specified	Dec. 31, 2014	Dec. 31, 2013
Deferred tax assets:
Allowance for loan losses	$ 42,574	$ 48,042
Depreciation	15,082	13,327
Employee benefits	17,893	14,325
Investment securities, including other-than-temporary impairment losses	15,972	24,735
Net operating loss carryforwards	39,462	53,926
Purchase accounting	31,327vly_DeferredTaxAssetsPurchaseAccounting	6,863vly_DeferredTaxAssetsPurchaseAccounting
Other	18,138us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOther	21,063us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOther
Total deferred tax assets	180,448us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsGross	182,281us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsGross
Deferred tax liabilities:
Pension plans	13,081vly_DeferredTaxLiabilitiesPensionPlan	21,774vly_DeferredTaxLiabilitiesPensionPlan
Other investments	14,662	11,096
Other	21,127us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilitiesOther	17,811us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilitiesOther
Total deferred tax liabilities	48,870us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilities	50,681us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilities
Net deferred tax asset (included in other assets)	$ 131,578us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsNet	$ 131,600us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsNet

Amount before allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards.

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Deferred tax liability attributable to taxable temporary differences arising from carrying basis differences of non-marketable investments (excludes investments in subsidiaries and equity method investments).

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