Top Financial Services Company: Frost Bank

Frost Logo

Frost is a storied name in Texas banking and a growing force in Fort Worth since opening in Tarrant County in 1998.

The bank is the anchor tenant in the recently opened Frost Bank Tower downtown, the seventh tallest building in the city and the first high-rise designed and built by a Fort Worth-based firm in more than 40 years — since Growald Architects designed the Tandy Center in the mid-1970s.

Frost has more than 73,000 square feet of office space in the building, similar to the bank’s presence in other Texas cities.

Building developer Anthracite and Jetta Operating are located in the top three floors of the building.

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The Handbook of Texas Online says that Thomas Frost came to Texas from Tennessee in 1854, taught Latin at Austin College in Huntsville and studied law in the office of Sam Houston. At one time, he served with the Texas Rangers. He served during the Civil War as a lieutenant colonel of the First Mounted Rifles.

Frost bank can be traced to a mercantile partnership organized in 1868 on Main Plaza in San Antonio. Frost Bank was chartered as a national banking association in 1899, and Frost served as president until his death in San Antonio on Nov. 21, 1903.

Frost is the banking, investments and insurance subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc., a financial holding company with $31.5 billion in assets as of March 31. As one of the 50 largest U.S. banks by asset size, Frost provides a full range of banking, investment and insurance services to businesses and individuals in the Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin, Corpus Christi, Houston, Permian Basin, Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio regions.

Tarrant Region President Hadley Woerner responded to a questionnaire from the Fort Worth Business Press:

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What differentiates your company from others in a similar business?

Frost grows and prospers by building long-term relationships based on top-quality service, high ethical standards and safe, sound assets. For nine consecutive years, Frost Bank has received the highest ranking in customer satisfaction in Texas in the J.D. Power U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study.

All businesses go through some tough times. What was your greatest challenge and how did you respond to it?

Frost turned 150 years old in 2018. Over the past 150 years, we have been through recessions, depressions, wars and a variety of other tough times. Frost was the only one of Texas’s top 10 banks to survive the 1980s and was the country’s first big bank to turn down TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program] funds after the 2008 financial crisis. We have the strength, size and experience to do well in all business environments, while maintaining our local community relationships and accessibility.

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In general, do you see the present business climate as challenging, uncertain or optimistic and why?

Frost remains very optimistic about operating in Texas, which was recently named the best state in the country for business.

Frost

640 Taylor St., Fort Worth (multiple locations)

Corporate headquarters: 100 W. Houston St., San Antonio

Number of employees: About 460 in Tarrant County and 4,300 statewide

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– Paul K. Harral