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A Visit with Rene Romero
- Updated: February 14, 2014
A Young Banker on the Fast Track
You’ll meet Rene Romero when you visit La Feria’s downtown BBVA-Compass bank. This young executive was named its bank president, and brings with him his business philosophy of wanting a strong, personal relationship with his customers and the community. His rapid rise in the company marks him as a young banker on the fast track.
Romero joined the BBVA multinational financial services giant in November 2010 as a bank officer at the Compass branch in Weslaco. He was there one year. His stellar performance caught the eye of bank administrators, and he was awarded membership in “the exclusive Pinnacle Club. The award means he was in the top 5% of officers in the worldwide company network. Along with that recognition came his promotion to be President/CEO of the BBVA branch on Stuart Place road.
After a year at the Stuart Place location, he was promoted to his current position as President and Bank Manager of the BBVA-Compass bank in La Feria. That is where we caught up with him. He was kind enough to tell us more about himself and his company, a company with branches coast-to-coast and worldwide.
Rene is proud of being a Valley man. Both he and his wife were born and raised in Mercedes. He graduated with his class of 1997 from Mercedes High School. He went on to get his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Finance from the University of Texas/Pan-American in Edinburg.
Rene said he made the right choice after graduation to go with the Compass Bank group.
He described his Spanish-based company as ranked as the largest regional bank in the US and is listed among the top 25 banks in the country. It is the 2nd largest bank in Texas–all of this since its founding in Spain in 1971.
Rene said he often gets questioned about the meaning of the letters BBVA: “The acronym stands for a region in Northwest Spain, the location of the father business of this multinational business. It stands for Banco Bilboa Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA),” he explained, adding, “In Mexico we are BBVA Bancomer, BBVA in Spain and BBVA Compass in the United States.”
And finally, “One of the things we do at Compass banks is to take customer follow-up surveys after their transactions,” he said. “We want to know that our customer is satisfied. We want them to know us as their hometown, friendly bank–and that pretty much tells our story.”