Hibernia National Bank

The Hibernia Bank Building, former headquarters in the CBD of New Orleans. Though all former Hibernia branches have been rebranded as "Capital One Bank," this building's historic name and signage remain unaltered.

Hibernia National Bank, founded in 1870, was a personal banking and commercial lending institution headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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 markets in Texas.

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.