Independent Banker - May 2017 - 40

$300 million to $1 billion
State Bank of Texas: How a
hotelier conquered banking
State Bank of Texas lays claim to one of those " only in
America " stories. It all started when founder Chan
Patel moved from Mumbai, India, to the US to attend
Stanford University. Two master's degrees and one
programming job later, he bought the fi rst of what
would eventually be 17 hotels.
Having achieved his American dream-at least
the fi rst part of it-Patel turned his attention to his
fellow immigrants. He saw how their bright entrepreneurial
ideas often sputtered and died because
most banks weren't willing or able to lend to them,
and he decided to do something about it.
After putting up $1 million of his own money
and raising another million from friends and family, he
opened State Bank of Texas in 1987, shortly after Black
Monday. Its primary aim was to lend to the immigrant
community, particularly those in the hospitality industry.
Today, Patel remains chairman and CEO and has been
joined by his sons, Sushil and Rajan, who are also partowners,
and CFO Janna Hayes. Sushil Patel, who is the
bank's president, places its status as a family owned and
operated business at the heart of its success story. " At the
end of the day, we know the buck stops with us as far as
losses and all decision making, " he says. " We do not have
any layers to go through, and [that] allows us to be a much
more nimble bank. "
State Bank of Texas's focus on lending in the hospitality
industry remains, but over the past decade it has also
carved out a niche acquiring failed banks and reviving
their fortunes. The most recent was January's FDICbrokered
acquisition of Chicago's 10-branch Seaway
Bank, once the largest black-owned bank in America,
-
State Bank of Texas
Dallas, Texas
Assets: $985 million
3yr average ROA: 7.03%
statebnk.com
1
which was badly damaged by the subprime
mortgage crisis. As part of the deal,
State Bank of Texas assumed $304 million
in deposits and purchased $309 million of
Seaway's assets.
Sushil Patel says a challenge for the medium term will
be the " seamless transition of Seaway loan staff and customers
into our SBT family. "
In the longer term, Chan Patel and his team plan to
continue to power the bank's growth through hard work,
ingenuity and, most importantly, boots on the ground.
" When loans start to experience diffi culties is the time to get
out from behind the desk, " Sushil Patel says. " More solutions
tend to present themselves the more educated you are about
the loan, which is diffi cult to do [from] behind a desk. "
And if that's not the quintessential community-bank
approach, then what is?
4 facts about... FSNB
-
FSNB, N.A.
Lawton, Okla.
Assets: $385 million
3yr average ROA: 3.73%
fsnb.com
» It started life in 1942 as a check-cashing facility on the
Army post of Fort Sill, home of the U.S. Field Artillery
School, in Lawton, Okla.
» J.R. " Dolph " Montgomery expanded this into a fullservice
bank for Fort Sill military personnel in 1946. It
now has branches in 10 states.
» It's a family aff air; Montgomery's daughter, Zelda
Davis, is vice chairman of the board, and his grandson,
John Davis, is chairman.
» It's been Marine/Navy Bank of the Year almost every
year running since 1996. It has a similar string of
awards from the Army and the Air Force.
40 ICBA IndependentBanker May 2017
http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.statebnk.com&id=20242&adid=P40E1 http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.fsnb.com&id=20242&adid=P40E2
Independent Banker - May 2017

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