Bank rebranding itself as ‘Popular’

Bank wants to add Broward branches

Popular Community Bank, which operates nearly a dozen branches in South Florida, is rebranding itself Monday as just Popular and intends to expand its footprint in Broward County, the institution’s top regional executive said.

Based in Miami Lakes, the South Florida arm of Popular Inc. operates 10 branches in Miami-Dade County and one in Broward. But the bank intends to scout for new locations in Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines and Hollywood, said Israel Velasco, Florida region executive. The sole Broward branch is in Sunrise.

“That’s what I call the next frontier for us and the biggest opportunity for growth for us,” Velasco said. “Definitely the appetite is there, and we will be looking to grow in Broward County.”

He said he is less “bullish” about Palm Beach County in the short-term, as “we don’t want to be so spread out initially.”

The name change is largely about conveying to the public a perception of a larger, more expansive bank with a broader base of services ranging from condo loans and single-family residential mortgages to private banking. Popular has $9.2 billion in assets in the United States.

“When I started, we were Banco Popular and changed to Popular Community Bank,” Velasco said in a telephone interview. “At that point it was the right thing for us to change. One of the challenges we had was that in the States, a lot of people perceived us as being a bank just for Hispanics or a bank for foreigners.

“We’ve outgrown the community bank name,” he added, “because we have a lot of different [service] areas not common to community banks.”

Velasco said the institution ultimately will be known as Popular “across the board.”

“We’ve already rebranded in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands; in the states, that’s happening on Monday,” he said.

The change eventually will take hold islandwide in Puerto Rico, where the institution got its start more than a century ago.

The new moniker, however, puzzled longtime South Florida banking analyst Ken Thomas, who is president of Community Development Fund Advisors. He asserted that smaller banks seeking to distinguish themselves from be-

hemoths such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America would want to retain the word “community” in their names, not discard it.

“The word ‘community’ is a very, very strong word,” he said. “I’m surprised that they’re doing it. I don’t understand that, to be honest with you.”

Along with the name change, all of Popular’s South Florida branches are receiving makeovers where customers will be greeted with an “open environment” that Velasco compared with that of AT&T stores. Customers can choose to consult a customer representative or bank by touchscreens.

“We have made great strides in bringing our operations closer together,” said Ignacio Alvarez, president and CEO of Popular Inc. in a statement. “Popular in the U.S. represents 22 percent of our total assets and is a main source of growth for Popular Inc.”

Founded in 1893, Popular Inc. does business in South Florida, the New York metropolitan area and the Caribbean, and ranks among the top U.S. banks with $44.3 billion in assets.

Popular says its assets have doubled on the U.S. mainland from $5 billion to nearly $10 billion since 2014. At one point, the bank operated branches in South and Central Florida, New York, California, Texas and Chicago. But Popular exited all of those markets except for South Florida and New York — and is bigger today than when it maintained a broader U.S. mainland presence, Velasco said.