Condensed consolidating financial information of guarantor and issuers of registered guaranteed securities - Additional Information (Detail) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico
Condensed Financial Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Statutory Accounting Practices Statutory Amount Available For Dividend Payments With Regulatory Approval		$ 542
Statutory Accounting Practices Statutory Amount Available For Dividend Payments Without Regulatory Approval	$ 525
BPNA To PNA
Condensed Financial Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Cash Dividends Paid To Parent Company By Consolidated Subsidiaries	$ 200

This element represents disclosure of the aggregate cash dividends paid to the entity by consolidated subsidiaries.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 235
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (SX 210.12-04.(b))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=26873400&loc=d3e24072-122690

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 942
-SubTopic 235
-Section S99
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (SX 210.9-06)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6882215&loc=d3e537971-122884

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher SEC
-Name Regulation S-X (SX)
-Number 210
-Section 04
-Paragraph b
-Article 12

Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher SEC
-Name Regulation S-X (SX)
-Number 210
-Section 06
-Article 9

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

Amount of dividends that can be declared or paid with approval of regulatory agency.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 235
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.4-08.(e))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=26873400&loc=d3e23780-122690

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher SEC
-Name Regulation S-X (SX)
-Number 210
-Section 08
-Paragraph e
-Article 4

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- Definition

Amount of dividends that can be declared or paid without approval of regulatory agency.

+ References

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