Hibernia National Bank - History

History

Founded by Irish immigrants in 1870, its seal included a harp which is the national symbol of Ireland. Hibernia was the Roman (Latin) name for Ireland. In 1973 the board of directors hired 38 year old Martin C. Miler to be the bank's president and chairman of the board. After multi-parish banking was approved by the Louisiana legislature in 1975 Hibernia grew from third largest in Orleans Parish to the largest bank in the state (in terms of assets) by 1983. The bank had positive growth every quarter from 1973 to 1991. Expanding through acquisitions of other banks it entered the Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi markets.

Hibernia also entered the insurance business with its purchase of the New Orleans-based broker, The Rosenthal Agency, in 2000 creating the Hibernia Rosenthal Agency.

In March 2005, it was announced that Capital One would be acquiring Hibernia National Bank for $5.3 billion. The acquisition was set to close in September; however, just a few days before the deal was to be completed, Hurricane Katrina just missed New Orleans — Hibernia's headquarters and biggest market. Capital One later agreed to acquire Hibernia at a lower price (approximately $5.0 billion), reflecting Hibernia's lower value. Hibernia National Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corporation in November 2005, and is now known as Bank South within Capital One. Capital One replaced the Hibernia name and brand with its own on April 24, 2006.

The service area of Capital One's Bank South is divided into twelve regions: Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Bayou, Beaumont, Dallas, Houston, Lake Charles/Lafayette, Marshall, Monroe, New Orleans, Shreveport, and Texarkana. With the exception of Bayou, which is not named after a city, and Lake Charles/Lafayette, which is named after two cities, each region's headquarters is located in the city from which it takes its name.

Read more about this topic:  Hibernia National Bank

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.”
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    It gives me the greatest pleasure to say, as I do from the bottom of my heart, that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed to live up to the highest standards of citizenship and patriotism.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.
    Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)