Frost Bank is a

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

-chartered

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

based in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

with 155

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

es and 1,700

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

s, all of which are in Texas. It is the primary subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., a

bank holding company A bank holding company is a company that controls one or more banks, but does not necessarily engage in banking itself. The compound bancorp (''banc''/''bank'' + '' corp ration') is often used to refer to these companies as well. United States ...

. It is on the

list of largest banks in the United States The following table lists the 100 largest bank holding companies in the United States ranked by total assets of June 30, 2022 per the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council; their market capitalization is also shown. This list does not ...

History

Early years

Frost Bank was founded in 1868 as a mercantile partnership in San Antonio by Thomas Claiborne Frost, who had served as a lieutenant colonel in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

. In February 1899, it was chartered as a national banking association. That year, the bank also reached $1 million in deposits.(Worth about $35,216,385.54 with modern day inflation) The bank survived the Panic of 1907 with the aid of an association of local banks and by 1921, sold shares to outside investors for the first time. Frost continued to grow with construction of a 12-story building in 1921, which was the tallest building in Texas at the time. By 1926, Joseph Hardin Frost, brother of T.C. Frost Jr., took over as president of the company.

Growth

Over the years, Frost has grown both organically and through acquisition of other banks, beginning in 1928 with the purchase of Lockwood National Bank. In 1977, the company merged with Cullen Bankers, Inc. of Houston forming Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. and its stock began trading on the NASDAQ. In 1982, Cullen/Frost Bankers and United States National Bancshares, Inc. (USNB) of Galveston, Texas merged, but Frost operated USNB separately for nearly two decades. As new financial services legislation allowed banks to broaden the services they offered customers, Cullen/Frost folded the USNB charter into Frost's in 2000. With this action, the last bank using the federally forbidden ''United States National Bank'' title ceased to exist. In 1983, the bank announced it intended to merge into First City Bancorp of Houston, Texas, however the merger was never completed. First City was subsequently rescued by the FDIC in 1988 and ultimately bankrupted in 1992 and was absorbed by other banks, primarily Texas Commerce Bank (now Chase). In 1999, Frost Bank acquired Commerce Financial Corp. and Frost Insurance Agency, a subsidiary of the bank acquired Professional Insurance Agents Inc. In 2005-2006, the company acquired Alamo Bank of Texas, Horizon Capital Bank, Summit Bancshares Inc., and Texas Community Bank. In 2014, it acquired

Western National Bank Western National Bank (WNB) was an individually and privately owned bank that was chartered in 1977 in Odessa, Texas. History Western National Bank was chartered in 1977 and among the charter members were the Wood family. During the great oil b ...

Industry changes

During the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

, the bank did not accept government assistance via the

Troubled Asset Relief Program The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President ...

, but faced with changes in the financial services industry, the bank converted its 113-year-old federal charter into a state charter in June 2012.

References

External links

Interview with Tom Frost, April 14, 1994, University of Texas as San Antonio: Institute of Texan Cultures: Oral History Collections, UA 15.01, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.
{{Authority control 1868 establishments in Texas Banks based in Texas American companies established in 1868 Banks established in 1868 Companies based in San Antonio Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange