Tom Whitehurst

Banks that say big is bad want to grow

You can't go to Bank of America's main branch on the bayfront without noticing the new FirstCapital Bank main branch and headquarters. The two banks are so close that their air conditioning intermingles.
   "Do you think that was planned?" FirstCapital chairman and president D. Michael Hunter asked with a chuckle. "Well, of course it was. We are sending a message."
   That message is that FirstCapital wants to serve the small and medium-size business customers that aren't getting the service they deserve from what Hunter calls the behemoths - Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BankOne and so on. Customers ought to be able to reach their bankers, whom they should know personally, and be able to shake them by the lapels if need be, Hunter says. That's hard to do through an 800-number to an office in another state.
   If you had a nickel for every time a smaller bank has said that lately, you could open your own bank and maybe we'd quit running into each other at the pawn shop. The brass at the recently established First State Bank has said it. So have the leaders of Laredo National Bank and Nueces National. "Community bank" and "relationship banking" are the buzzwords, and the huge nationwide bank chains are cast as the villains.
   Community banking is not a new concept. American Bank was founded here 30 years ago on the same principle. And as large and historic as Frost Bank is in Texas, Hunter credits that company for remaining a true community bank.
   It just seems trendy all of a sudden, with the creation of First State Bank and with FirstCapital moving its headquarters from Victoria to Corpus Christi. FirstCapital celebrated the opening of the bayfront branch and headquarters Tuesday. The south tower of the high-rise, formerly Energy Plaza, is now called FirstCapital Bank Building in honor of its major tenant.
   The next logical question is, are too many players getting into the game, or is there really that much community bank business to be had? Hunter says there's plenty of market share available for all who do a decent job. And they'll take most of that market share from those behemoths, he says.
   Hunter - like his former partner Robert Baldwin, the founder of First State Bank - has been through many of the bank mergers and takeovers that are the reason the name of your neighborhood bank likely has changed several times in the past few years. "All of the people in this company have been together for a number of years. We've worked together in other situations where the behemoths have taken over the companies. We feel that these are our customers and we are going to continue to service that marketplace without having to call an 800-number and find somebody in Timbuktu."
   Ted Puckett, the local president of Bank of America, offers a different perspective on 800-numbers and other off-site banking features such as online services. They're available to serve the customers and make banking more convenient for them - not as a wall between the customers and their banker.
   "We provide quick service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week through 800-numbers, and we also add the local answers if they prefer to do business that way. So we have ways to serve our customers, however they would like to be served. They will define how they want to bank with Bank of America."
   So, the customer will decide if bigger is worse. In the meantime, the community banks are trying to get bigger - though not at the customer's expense, they say.
  
  

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