Frost Bank is a Texas-chartered bank based in San Antonio with 155 branches and 1,700 automated teller machines, all of which are in Texas. It is the primary subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., a bank holding company. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States.

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 Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

in the Confederate States Army. 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 The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from ...

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 The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. In 1982, Cullen/Frost Bankers and United States National Bancshares, Inc. (USNB) of

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

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 The Texas Commerce Bank (officially Texas Commerce Bank N.A., with its parent bank holding company known as Texas Commerce Bancshares, Inc.) was a Texas-based bank acquired by Chemical Banking Corporation of New York in May 1987. The acquisiti ...

(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.

Industry changes

During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the bank did not accept government assistance via the Troubled Asset Relief Program, 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