Cullen/Frost Bankers

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Frost Bank that offers commercial and consumer banking services in Texas. It operates in two segments, Banking and Frost Wealth Advisors. The company offers commercial banking services to corporations and other business clients, including financing for industrial and commercial properties, interim construction related to industrial and commercial properties, equipment, inventories and accounts receivables, and acquisitions; commercial leasing; and treasury management services. It also provides consumer banking services, such as checking accounts, savings programs, automated-teller machines (ATMs), overdraft facilities, installment and real estate loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, drive-in and night deposit services, safe deposit facilities, and brokerage services. In addition, the company offers international banking services comprising deposits, loans, letters of credit, foreign collections, funds, and foreign exchange services. Further, it acts as a correspondent for approximately 171 financial institutions; offers trust, investment, agency, and custodial services for individual and corporate clients; provides capital market services that include sales and trading, new issue underwriting, money market trading, advisory, and securities safekeeping and clearance; and supports international business activities. Additionally, the company offers insurance and securities brokerage services; and holds securities for investment purposes, as well as investment management services to Frost-managed mutual funds, institutions, and individuals. It operates approximately 157 financial centers and 1,650 ATMs. The company serves energy, manufacturing, services, construction, retail, telecommunications, healthcare, military, and transportation industries. Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

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. In February 1899, it was chartered as a national banking association. That year, the bank also reached $1 million in deposits. 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. 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 .

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.