The $362 million project replaces the bank's core technology infrastructure for all of the bank's 716 branches in seven states across its Sunbelt footprint. It cuts the time it takes to open a new deposit account to as little as five minutes from more than 40, and reduces time to market for new products by up to 75 percent.

"The core platform makes BBVA Compass significantly more competitive," said Manolo Sanchez, BBVA Compass chief executive and BBVA country manager. "We're more efficient, but equally important, we can offer a virtually unmatched level of transparency and simplicity to our customers giving us a unique position among U.S. banks."

Accenture provided its Alnova Financial Solutions™ software to BBVA Compass and helped the bank implement the new system.

"Technology transformations of this kind can have a major impact on the market position of banks -particularly in the U.S. where aging systems are prevalent," said Juan Pedro Moreno, global managing director of banking at Accenture. "Again and again around the world, BBVA has shown a unique client-centric focus and command of operational excellence and technology innovation."

The project marks one of the first successful core banking infrastructure replacements for a major U.S. bank in more than a decade. The new system powers BBVA Compass' checking and savings deposit platform and will soon provide the engine for its consumer and business lending, including mortgage, capabilities. The new infrastructure also will be fully integrated with BBVA Compass' branch and ATM networks, call centers and online and mobile banking services.

"Our core system transforms the banking experience for our customers and for our employees," said Sergio Fidalgo, BBVA Compass chief information officer. "Our customers save time, and our branch employees have more time to spend meeting their clients' needs. In short, the Alnova technology allows for more productivity."

By centralizing all of the bank's customer customer account information onto a single platform, BBVA Compass employees can provide faster, more comprehensive service to its customers. The new system will provide the bank's customers with the same information available to the bank through all points of access: branches, online, phone, ATM or mobile device. That transparency is expected to provide customers more timely information about their accounts, which offers greater control over their finances.

The system allows BBVA Compass to post many customer transactions in real-time, which significantly lowers back-office processing costs. Real-time processing is a capability generally unavailable among U.S. banks.

"By eliminating most of the coding needed to develop new products, we have also vastly reduced our time to market," said Fidalgo. "When we do custom development work, Alnova allows us to leverage that work on future developments as well."

BBVA Compass was supported by Accenture Core Banking Services, which has helped design and implement core banking systems for more than 200 institutions globally. Its Alnova software platform is an award-winning core banking solution, with more than 100 clients in more than 20 countries. BBVA uses Alnova in nine other countries.