Get Off My Lawn said:

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Corporatization is part of the consequence of universal suffrage. If politicians served voters who all owned and ran private enterprises, taxes and policies would necessarily favor small businesses. But when a voting block is majority consumption focused; scale reigns and big pocket lobbyists can easily "incentivize" politicians to tip the scales increasingly in their favor.

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Corporatization would happen regardless. Larger companies are stronger and more efficient than smaller ones, and aggregation is to be expected when efficiency is rewarded like in free market capitalism.

Think of it like the evolution of nations. Prehistoric humans roamed in small troops or bands, but safety and efficiency in numbers and cooperation led to consolidation and further expansion until you moved from small bands with personal territory to larger societies with established borders. After a few millennia of further consolidation you have massive nations that run things and continue the slow march of aggregation. Look at Europe. Once a highly fragmented and conflict prone region, it now has the EU, open borders between nations, and a common currency. It is slowly consolidating in the same way humanity has for millennia.

Business is the same way. It is all about growth and continuity, so the same mechanisms will come into play. There is strength and efficiency in size and numbers. There is also risk mitigation in diversification. Larger and larger companies stretching themselves across industries are pretty much inevitable based the forces and mechanics of markets, not politics.

Hoyt Ag said:

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JayHowdy! said:

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I had been a customer of Guaranty Bank and Trust for 30 years (a 100-year-old bank run by local people) . They were just bought out Oct 1 by Glacier Bank out of Idaho. I am afraid that it too will be ruined by the large corporate bank mentality.

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I have been with Glacier for 6 years, no issues. I got a really good rate on a home improvement loan with my local Bank of San Juans (Glacier owned) that was 1% better than anything I could find after a lot of research.

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That is good to hear. I have been thinking about looking for a new local bank. I will see how the transition goes.

YouBet said:

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Related to this thread....Bessent and Chief Warren are calling for the FDIC insurance cap to increase from $250k to......$10M.

I wonder why that is.

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Thank god. It's a pain in the arse trying to manage the $250k limit per account. As an individual, this impacts me greatly.

We have used Frost for business and personal for 15 years and I have been overall satisfied. Still lots you have to go to San Antonio for approval on but seems to be getting better. We had the same banking relationship person for those 15 years until our lady retired. But our new guy represents the bank well.

But, Frost is typically very conservative in their lending. So why you can actually talk to a person to plead your case, it can be frustrating to get a yes. Big Corp bank would have looked at their decision matrix and make you wait on hold with the 1.800 number just to get a quick no with no particular explanation.

I didn't know about Veritex being acquired. They really sold themselves on being the "local" guys, turns out they were just in it to make a quick buck.

There is definitely a market for local, relationship focused banks. Same goes for healthcare services for that matter. But it would have to be run, owned by people who are interested in more than their own personal balance sheets.

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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this is a consolidation of power. they rig the rules so only they can play and win. they then gobble up more power and money and eventually we have no choices. pretty easy to see where this is all leading on many different levels. toss in digital id and currency and the noose is getting tighter.

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This is how free market capitalism dies. Competition is squashed by over regulation mandated by lobbyists for the mega corporations. Sad to see. Start ups are a thing of the past, too.

infinity ag said:

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Does Aggieland Credit Union on University Drive still exist?
I had an account there in the 90s. I still use their red checkbook cover even now, after 30 years.I also have the carbon copies of the checks I wrote with them in 95 and 96.

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Yes. I opened an account with them in '93 when they were located on Dominik. Still use Greater Texas Federal Credit Union (Aggieland Credit Union is the BCS branch of them) to this day.

Overregulation is definitely a part of it. Costs of complying drops precipitously once you cross the thresholds of large banks. Banks either had to limit their growth, pay the incremental costs to comply, or sell out and make a buck.

But regulation drove the end result of very large banks that is less than ideal, particularly from a… regulatory perspective.

FlyRod said:

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Credit unions have a lot of the vibes small community banks do, at least the ones I've dealt with.

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I am a member at four different credit unions. Two of them I have four-digit member number because my parents opened accounts for me as a child in the 1970s. Love credit unions.

I have two friends who ran "community banks" that sold out in the last five years. That was always their plan. Build up and sell. One is about to start the process of doing again after his non compete ends. It's the nature of beast. I'm a shareholder in a "community" bank my wife's grandfather was part of a local group that started many years ago. They've made acquisition after acquisition over the years. Just waiting for them to get acquired at some point for a liquidity event - we don't own much but it will still be a nice payday when (or if) it ever happens.

YouBet said:

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aggiedent said:

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I started my Business Account with Bank of the Southwest in 1990. Bought out by M Bank, which was bought out by Bank One, which was absorbed into J. P. Morgan Chase in 2004.

So in 14 years my account went from a small regional bank through 3 buyout/merges and is now with one of the largest banks in the world.

Everything is being Walmarted and Corporatized. Hell, if you go to a veterinarian these days, it's 50-50 it might be owned by a large corporation.

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I was glad when Bank One was bought out and that name put to pasture. Bank One can forever burn in hell.

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We had a local bank open up in Buda in the 1980s when I was in highschool. I saw one of my old teachers at a reunion this year, and she told me her saga of banking there. She opened an account there when it opened and had most of her money there because it was right down the street. In the 1990s First American Bank (local BCS villain Don Adam) bought them out. My teacher friend took out a personal loan for some elective medical work. While paying the loan back, the bank became part of Citibank. She paid the loan off and had all the paperwork showing the loan was settled. About a year afterward, she got notified all her accounts were frozen because she defaulted on the loan. Since Citi closed the local branch she couldn't just walk down the street to correct it. She had to pay a lawyer several thousand dollars to fix their mistake and unfreeze her money. She took all her money and moved it to Austin teachers credit union and told Citi to pound sand.

My first wife was mugged in broad daylight outside of Eatzi's on Oak Lawn in Dallas. Multiple witnesses, suspect with distinctive tattoos, suspect on camera using our debit card, on and on. He got $1K out of our account before I got it shut down.

1. Cops did nothing about it even though we ID'ed him and this was almost 25 years ago.

2. Bank One would not give me money back even though I promptly produced all of the paperwork they required to get my money back. It took 1 year to get money back. In the last few months before they capitulated, I would call Bank One every single day asking them where my money was.

I eventually had a higher up get on the phone and she literally asked me: "What it will take for you to go away?" And my response was simply - "I followed all of your procedures a year ago. Refund the money that was stolen; no more; no less." I got my money back the next day, finally.

Not long after The Great Recession hit and they were absorbed.

edit: that was also the last time I used a debit card.

I don't know why y'all are complaining, corporate consolidation is everything the right has advocated for decades.

This is simply the end result of "hands-off" capitalism. As individuals/corporations become more successful, they gain capital. They then use that capital to gobble up all competition until you're left with just a handful of corporate elites running everything. Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies love this.

TOUCHDOWN! said:

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I don't know why y'all are complaining, corporate consolidation is everything the right has advocated for decades.

This is simply the end result of "hands-off" capitalism. As individuals/corporations become more successful, they gain capital. They then use that capital to gobble up all competition until you're left with just a handful of corporate elites running everything. Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies love this.

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There are so many bad assumptions in the above its hard to pick a starting point.

Hands-off capitalism allows for new markets and new entrants to existing markets. Those who build a better mousetrap or who convince you that a mousetrap was needed in the first place are the geniuses of capitalism, and typically the most successful.

Consolidations happen in mature industries. But it does not always result in a handful of elites running everything. And many of those elitists are not billionaire cronies of Trump. They are way more tilted to the left. Why? Because when you get that big you lobby your friends to regulate your industry to your advantage.

That is opposite of limited government that tends to represent right or conservative ideals.

So pretty big swing and a miss. He is NOT a touchdown.

CanyonAg77 said:

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We were with Happy State Bank, founded in Happy, Texas. Was fantastic, even after they expanded throughout Texas.

Bought out by Centennial, out of Arkansas. Went to crap immediately.

Started getting charged fees on everything. Most telling was that EVERYONE we knew that worked for them, quit. I'm talking Presidents and VPs at several branches. People we respected greatly.

We are now with an Education Credit Union.

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I immediately thought of this!

Banks and bonds: What's troubling a Texas financial institution

OCC Announces Enforcement Actions for January 2024 | OCC

Industry Bancshares problems were all of their own doing. The chickens finally came home to roost. Any anger should be directed to the BOD and the person responsible for that "cash cow" of a bond portfolio / strategy.

aggiedent said:

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Everything is being Walmarted and Corporatized. Hell, if you go to a veterinarian these days, it's 50-50 it might be owned by a large corporation.

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Way worse.

infinity ag said:

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Does Aggieland Credit Union on University Drive still exist?
I had an account there in the 90s. I still use their red checkbook cover even now, after 30 years.I also have the carbon copies of the checks I wrote with them in 95 and 96.

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Don't know about that location but the Credit Union, with ACU as one of their titles, is around. The service and fees there are horrible. They started adding $5 fees to my SAVINGS account each month without any notice. I got them to cancel that and refund what they took out. Then, they locked me out online and I had to go in to get it reset. Locked out again! They then went back to the $5 a month fee and I'd had enough.

I took out what was left in my account and bought a guitar back in like February. I've had 2 loans through them that went OK, but it wasn't worth the headache. Sadly, I've had similar experiences with other credit unions.

Washington Federal, or WaFD, may not be a mom and pop bank but in the year or so I've been with them, they've been fantastic. No loans (yet) but their online system rocks. It just depends on where you are as far as locations. They have 3-4 in DFW so I'm good.

Bank of Texas isn't totally horrific but their commercial accounts setup can be a challenge. Their staff is terribly untrained and inexperienced and make a lot of mistakes that you'll be responsible for getting fixed.

My personal accounts are at Texas Capital Bank. Haven't had any real issues with them other than some weird debit card problems. It just took a visit to the branch to get resolved. Again, your location matters here.

So I'd recommend TCB and WaFD. Probably the latter over the former. I'm going to move all my commercial stuff over to WaFD. If you MUST go national, stay the hell away from the following:

-- CoMerica (are they even still around?)
-- BOA (talk about burning in hell; I'll supply the matches AND lighter fluid)

As bad and as corrupt as they probably are, Wells Fargo (gulp, cough, puke...) may be your best bet. That may be a little bit like choosing a firing squad or the chair over hanging, but my WF experience hasn't been absolute torture.

TxLawDawg said:

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itsyourboypookie said:

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Soon we will just have big banks with no community ties. The regulatory burden is too big for small banks. Cadence just bought industries bank shares, which was a group that bought up several small community banks around 2017. Cadence bought Bancorp south sometime during covid.

No sooner than they hang the Cadence sign in our hometown Cadence announces they are selling to Huntington Bank. Wonder how many of those small town locations are at risk of closing.

https://ir.huntington.com/news-presentations/press-releases/detail/951/huntington-bancshares-incorporated-to-acquire-cadence-bank

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Same exact story. You may be from my town (or one of the other small towns were Industry Bank Shares had branches). Several of the local employees are now gone. I was already worried about the coming changes from Cadence, only to find out earlier this week it was going to change again early next year to Huntington. I have my business accounts there so it's going to be a major PITA to change banks, but I'll probably have to do it.

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We have about 5 million in debt with cadence. Just paid off a loan with the small bank they bought. We just extended two credit lines with cadence.

The people that get hurt the most during this in rural texas are the farmers and ranchers that use credit lines. They typically fire the ag guy at the bank first, or the ag guy was the president, then your new loan officer can't tell a bull from a steer and damn sure doesn't understand why a guy that 'breaks even' every year has a million dollar LOC.

91AggieLawyer said:

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infinity ag said:

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Does Aggieland Credit Union on University Drive still exist?
I had an account there in the 90s. I still use their red checkbook cover even now, after 30 years.I also have the carbon copies of the checks I wrote with them in 95 and 96.

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Don't know about that location but the Credit Union, with ACU as one of their titles, is around. The service and fees there are horrible. They started adding $5 fees to my SAVINGS account each month without any notice. I got them to cancel that and refund what they took out. Then, they locked me out online and I had to go in to get it reset. Locked out again! They then went back to the $5 a month fee and I'd had enough.

I took out what was left in my account and bought a guitar back in like February. I've had 2 loans through them that went OK, but it wasn't worth the headache. Sadly, I've had similar experiences with other credit unions.

Washington Federal, or WaFD, may not be a mom and pop bank but in the year or so I've been with them, they've been fantastic. No loans (yet) but their online system rocks. It just depends on where you are as far as locations. They have 3-4 in DFW so I'm good.

Bank of Texas isn't totally horrific but their commercial accounts setup can be a challenge. Their staff is terribly untrained and inexperienced and make a lot of mistakes that you'll be responsible for getting fixed.

My personal accounts are at Texas Capital Bank. Haven't had any real issues with them other than some weird debit card problems. It just took a visit to the branch to get resolved. Again, your location matters here.

So I'd recommend TCB and WaFD. Probably the latter over the former. I'm going to move all my commercial stuff over to WaFD. If you MUST go national, stay the hell away from the following:

-- CoMerica (are they even still around?)
-- BOA (talk about burning in hell; I'll supply the matches AND lighter fluid)

As bad and as corrupt as they probably are, Wells Fargo (gulp, cough, puke...) may be your best bet. That may be a little bit like choosing a firing squad or the chair over hanging, but my WF experience hasn't been absolute torture.

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This is the location I am talking about. 501 University Dr. I got an account back in 1995. Felt bad closing it around 2000 but I've never been to CStn since. But I still use their red original checkbook cover even now.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5cujtG1vxBHjYLMC9

I know of one or two local banks in our area.

Pharmacies are the same way. PBMs killed them.

when my wife and I got our first home loan we left a VM with the local bank on a Saturday afternoon after they'd closed.

We got a call that evening and the loan officer met us at the bank that Sunday afternoon to get the paperwork started.

It was 1994 and IIRC it was ~6.5%.

I worked for Cadence for 11 years. When BancorpSouth bought Cadence (and assumed the name) things disintegrated rapidly. Lots of highly qualified people were forced out and replaced with cheaper alternatives. I was told Cadence bought Industry because they were about to go into receivership. The FDIC facilitated a deal….

I left last year to join Texas Gulf Bank. We are a small privately owned community bank. The same family has owned the bank since 1913. We are really focused on growing organically and adding good people in the Houston market. No plans to buy another bank or sell. It will be tough in the current regulatory environment, very hard to compete because of cost, but we are hyper focused on providing good customer service. I think we do a good job and offer enough services to be competitive. If you are in Houston or south to Lake Jackson/Clute, come meet our people. You won't be disappointed.

Aggieland Credit Union is part of Greater Texas FCU. It is mostly state of texas employees. They have branches all over the state.

I rarely set foot in them because I can take of my business online. They are also part of the "shared branch" credit union network which means I can often do banking with GTFCU at a lot of other non-GTFCU locations.

I have no idea why 91AggieLawyer was doing to get a $5 service charge every month. I have banked with them 30 years and never been hit with a monthly charge

Burdizzo said:

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I have no idea why 91AggieLawyer was doing to get a $5 service charge every month. I have banked with them 30 years and never been hit with a monthly charge

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I think 91AggieLawyer needs to get a good lawyer and sue GTFCU.

Quote:

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I was told Cadence bought Industry because they were about to go into receivership. The FDIC facilitated a deal….

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I'm quite happy with Frost bank. They are a texas bank, and are very customer friendly.

Does anyone remember this bank?

This coin bag is from the mid 70s. My father owned it and he gave it to me and now I have it. This is from our days in Dallas in the 70s. It contains 70s era dollar coins including the 1976 bicentennial coins.
If anyone can tell me the location of this bank, I will be grateful.

I googled it for you. 811 S Central Expressway in Richardson, now a Comerica Bank.

flown-the-coop said:

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I googled it for you. 811 S Central Expressway in Richardson, now a Comerica Bank.

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Beautiful! Thanks a lot. I likely visited the building as a 3 year old.

I see it is pretty close to where we lived in the 70s (Royal and Audelia). It used to be Miller Rd back then but they seem to have shortened the length of Miller and called it Royal.

I am loosely involved in banking as board member, so a real banker can correct me... But I had heard a while back that banks with over a billion in assets are subject to MUCH greater regulation than banks under. The thought is that once you start nearing that threshold, it just makes sense to sell to someone larger and skip the adjustment to those regulations.

Also, there are still many small town banks out there - at least in our area - but consumers are generally moving to the larger banks. I feel online technology is driving this move. The only clear advantage a small town bank has over larger banks is the personal loan officer and the ability to negotiate terms on loans. Otherwise, they are chasing the products bigger banks are already offering. A slight second advantage may be that old people don't like change and stick with the bank they've used for forever.

In my public accounting days I used to work on projects with banks at or meeting the threshold. Back then I think it was $500MM and dealt with the OCC.

That was 20 years ago and was as you mention a catalyst to either remain smaller, grow and comply, or sell.

Looks like Team Trump is working on this area.

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2025/nr-occ-2025-95.html

JayHowdy! said:

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I had been a customer of Guaranty Bank and Trust for 30 years (a 100-year-old bank run by local people) . They were just bought out Oct 1 by Glacier Bank out of Idaho. I am afraid that it too will be ruined by the large corporate bank mentality.

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This buyout is really starting to hit the Mt Pleasant Branch (the original bank). Glacier has laid off many back office employees, including the entire IT department. I worked in their IT department about 30 years ago, and they still had some of the IT employees they had back then. I hate it for those guys - 30 year employees!

Our Bank (Pilgrim) has seen some customers move over and also added a couple employees that were let go. I'm sure other banks have too, but Guaranty is one of our community's largest employers - especially of white collar workers. It will be interesting to see how this affects the community.

A local banker bought by 4-H chickens at the livestock show auction and later gave me a $1,000 scholarship when I graduated high school.

Credit unions a great when membership is limited to a particular group, like employees of a company. You get personal service and they aren't too big. They lose their way when they open membership to the general public and get too big, becoming just another chain of banks.

Anyone use FNBCT? They are building a new bank by Gringo's in south College station.

gigemhilo said:

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I am loosely involved in banking as board member, so a real banker can correct me... But I had heard a while back that banks with over a billion in assets are subject to MUCH greater regulation than banks under. The thought is that once you start nearing that threshold, it just makes sense to sell to someone larger and skip the adjustment to those regulations.

Also, there are still many small town banks out there - at least in our area - but consumers are generally moving to the larger banks. I feel online technology is driving this move. The only clear advantage a small town bank has over larger banks is the personal loan officer and the ability to negotiate terms on loans. Otherwise, they are chasing the products bigger banks are already offering. A slight second advantage may be that old people don't like change and stick with the bank they've used for forever.

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Can't speak to that, but there's a big kink at $10B. State banks can still offer this feel but as they gear up past that, it's going away.