Independent Banker - February 2022 - 46

More than 500 of
Frost Bank's staffers
volunteered to help
process PPP loans in
April 2020.
211,000 jobs and contributed nearly
$25.2 billion to the state's GDP in
2019, according to state records. That
year, installations further south, in
the region that includes Brownsville
and Corpus Christi, supported an
estimated 41,000 jobs and contributed
about $4.6 billion to the state's output.
Other sectors contributing to the
state's vibrancy include ranching,
healthcare and even wineries. Clearly,
community banks in the region have
plenty of opportunities to do what
they do best: forge deep and lasting
relationships with their customers
and communities. We spoke with four
community banks in the southern half
of Texas to learn how they are serving
this buzzing region.
Deepening roots
A group effort helped Frost soar
with PPP loans
When small businesses could start applying for loans under the Small
Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in April
2020, $47.9 billion-asset Frost Bank got busy. Real busy. More than 500
staffers volunteered to help process loan applications, according to
the 2020 annual report of the San Antonio-based bank. Across its 155
financial centers, private bankers, compliance officers, IT professionals
and auditors were among those manually inputting loans into the
system and calling applicants who had incomplete paperwork.
The money for the first tranche of the PPP ran out after 13 days, and
during that time Frost had obtained loan approvals for nearly 11,000
businesses totaling $3.2 billion, the report notes. It adds that at one point
during that initial period, " despite being around the 50th largest bank in
the country, we were 14th in terms of the dollar amount of loan approvals
in the United States. " More money flowed into the program, and Frost
would ultimately issue 32,500 PPP loans totaling about $3.4 billion.
" It was a huge effort for our bankers, but we recognized how badly
our customers needed that boost, " says Bill Day, senior vice president
and corporate communication manager at Frost. He adds that more
than 90% of the community bank's PPP borrowers have already begun or
completed the loan forgiveness process.
San Antonio has proved itself as a
place full of business and opportunity.
Amarillo National Bank (ANB) in
Amarillo, Texas, plans to open its
first full-service retail branch in the
home of the Alamo this year, but the
$7.6-billion asset community bank
has been loaning money in the city
and surrounding areas for nearly a
decade, according to Travis Edlund,
senior vice president and regional
manager of the San Antonio market.
Some clients who have relationships
with ANB have expanded their
businesses into downstate markets.
" San Antonio became a real attractive
place for some of these businesses
to grow, and as they did, they took
Amarillo National Bank with them
and then they referred some people
to us here locally, " Edlund says. " Just
providing good service and, frankly,
just answering the phone makes it
pretty easy to grow business. "
By October 2020, ANB had
amassed about $500 million in loan
commitments in San Antonio and
surrounding markets. That month,
Edlund, a native San Antonian,
helped open a loan production office
in his hometown with his sights set
46 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q February 2022
Photo by Nicolas McComber/iStock
Independent Banker - February 2022

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