Texas Banking

Managing a Complex Vendor Matrix

In the last two or three years, bankers have been focusing more and more on "managing" their vendor relationships. Part of what has driven this renewed focus on third-party relationships is clearly regulatory. Vendor relationships fall into two primary categories: key technological, customer data relationships that rank as either "critical" or "important," then all other vendor relationships that fall into the "incidental" category. Before signing a contract for a mission-critical service, ba...

Open Season On Deposits

Deposit hunting and gathering is not the sport of the average banker today. It is the sport of hard work, solid service delivery, a full court press and smart banking. The need for smart defense and well-managed offense is where the strategizing pays off. Understand and embrace the expectation; it is in your job description. You are expected to move business your existing customer has elsewhere to your location. The game plan of the newest and, for sure, the about to be new competitor in your...

Sizzling Savings

In 1988, the TBA Services Co Inc (TBASCO) was formed to reduce the cost of products and services for Texas banks. A TBASCO endorsement means completion of a lengthy investigative process by an 11-member board of directors, comprised of nine bankers from across the state, TBASCO EVP Lenelle Freeman (a non-voting member) and TBA President & CEO Rick Smith. Described as a bank's own research center, TBASCO saves bankers valuable research time by requiring each endorsed company to thoroughly ...

Protect Your Clients' Privacy

The Secretary of State's (SOS) office handles an enormous volume of information each and every day, as it files approximately 400,000 Uniform Commercial Code financing statement each and every year. This information has been available to the public electronically since 1988, and in 2001, the SOS expanded access to public information and documents through SOSDirect, which permits a subscriber to search, view and make copies of the business entity records filed and maintained by this office. Ho...

Banking Bytes

Chairman's Forum

Tba Represents All Banks ... Period

The Texas Bankers Association (TBA) represents not just big banks and not only community banks, but rather it represents the banking industry. TBA's tagline, developed under the leadership of Don Grobowsky, "One Industry. One Vision. One Voice." is not just a slogan; it is a reality. Out of 716 banks in the state, 616 are members of TBA. That is an 86% membership penetration. TBA's board is inclusive in nature. It is comprised of 38 bankers from seven districts across the state. TBA has never...

News & Trends

Bankers to Teach Teens Critical Credit Lessons On Oct. 18

On October 18, bankers can help local teens and young adults prepare for adult financial responsibilities by participating in the 5th Annual Get Smart About Credit Day, a financial education event sponsored by the American Bankers Association Education Foundation. Last year, more than 500 community, regional and national banks took the message of using credit wisely to nearly 65,000 young people in places as varied as Pittsburgh, Tupelo, MS, and Sioux Falls, SD. The new Get Smart About Credit...

Dennis Nixon Elected to U.S. Chamber Board

Dennis Nixon, president and CEO, International Bancshares Corp, has been elected to serve on the board of directors of the US Chamber of Commerce. Issues of specific concern to Nixon are jobs and the economy. US Rep Henry Cuellar applauded Nixon's selection, saying his "unique level of understanding and experience" on immigration and international trade will be "invaluable" to the US Chamber as it pushes for comprehensive immigration reform and free trade agreements that level the playing fie...

The Federal Home Loan Banks of Dallas and Chicago Announce Merger Discussions

Tba Receives Award

Coppermark Receives Top Ranking

Comerica Announces Site of New Corporate Headquarters in Texas

We Wish to Welcome and Thank Our Newest Associate Member

Cullen/Frost Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Ringing of the Closing Bell

Tba Calendar of Events

Citizens National Bank Opens Pflugerville Banking Center

Meridian Bank Texas Announces Lake Dallas Office

Meridian Bank Texas, headquartered in Fort Worth, announced the official opening of its Lake Dallas office headed by SVP John Spencer. The Lake Dallas office will focus on real estate and construction lending in North Texas. As an accomplished real estate lender with 30 years of construction lending experience in North Texas, including Denton, Flower Mound and Lewisville areas, Spencer has built many successful long-term relationships with homebuilders and real estate developers that have res...

Tba Bankpac Contributes $125,000 to Aba Pac

What's Hot With Tbasco

Bank-Sponsored Long-Term Care Programs for Community Bank Boards

J.T. Miller Co. Helps Protect Real Estate Collateral

Your Advocate

Why Industry Association Mergers Benefit the Financial Services Industry

Issues that had been stumbling blocks to bankers association mergers had vanished. The issue of "community-based representation" is at the forefront both at the state and national levels. The merger of these associations did nothing but enhance that aspect of representation. The merger has been and will continue to be an outstanding success. The various entities that trade associations have regular contact with, whether it is the Texas Legislature, the Texas delegation in Washington and the s...

Message From The President

Keeping Poachers Off Our Turf

Unfortunately, the Farm Credit System is not the only entity encroaching on the banking industry's turf. The credit unions are looking to expand beyond their mission and charter, taking even more of a bank's market share, through the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act of 2007 (CURIA). This legislation, if passed, would expand the credit unions ability to offer tax-subsidized commercial loans, among other things. Through letter-writing campaigns across the US, bankers have been successfu...

Banker To Banker

Citizens State Bank Celebrates 100th Anniversary

The officers, directors and employees of the Citizens State Bank in Princeton celebrated the bank's 100th year of operation on May 4. Citizens State Bank was one of two original banks in Princeton, a community that was founded around 1881 by T. B. Wilson and his brother George Wilson. The brothers were disappointed to learn that the name Wilson, which was proposed for the name of the community, was already in use so they chose to honor another local landowner, Prince Dowlin; Princeton became ...

Legal Hotline

Answers to Your Legal Questions

Several questions on legal issues are answered. The Texas UCC reads: "(d) If an instrument is payable to two or more persons alternatively, it is payable to any of them and may be negotiated, discharged, or enforced by any or all of them in possession of the instrument. In Texas, a Uniform Transfers to Minors Act account can have only one custodian. The IRA agreement dictates the distribution of assets upon an IRA owner's death. Usually when the sole primary beneficiary dies before the IRA ow...

Community Banker: Spotlight

Assets Soar Under Leadership of Banker-Pilot

While in college at Texas Tech University in the 1970s, George Odom worked as a flight instructor in the Lubbock area. Although he would continue flying airplanes long after college, Odom began his career as a banker at First National Bank Lubbock his senior year of college. Although he no longer flies, Odom, who is president and CEO of First State Bank in the Texas Panhandle, has taken his bank to higher levels since he joined in 2002. In an area where the primary business is farming and ran...

From The Editor

Focus On Vendor Partnerships

Banker's Roundtable

What Are the Three Most Important Things You Take Into Consideration As You Select Vendors?