Betty Dillard bdillard@bizpress.net
Dallas-based PlainsCapital Bank moved into all major Texas markets Sept. 16 with the opening of 51 former locations of Edinburg-based First National Bank. The transaction gives PlainsCapital entry into the Rio Grande Valley, Houston, Corpus Christi, Laredo and El Paso markets, among others. PlainsCapital assumed all of the liabilities and purchased all of the assets of First National Bank on Sept. 13. Based on First National’s April 19 balances, PlainsCapital Bank purchased at book value about $2.6 billion in assets and assumed about $2.4 billion in liabilities, including $1.7 billion of core deposits. The branch locations have been rebranded PlainsCapital Bank. For former First National Bank customers, banking is “business as usual” with all the normal banking services available to them. PlainsCapital Bank is part of PlainsCapital Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH), which started in Lubbock in 1988 and is now based in Dallas. Prior to this transaction, PlainsCapital Bank was the sixth largest bank headquartered in Texas based on deposits. Its footprint consisted of 33 locations in the West, Central and South Texas markets of Lubbock, Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. For more information, visit PlainsCapital.com.
CertusBank enters Texas market South Carolina-based CertusBank has expanded in Texas with the opening of an office in downtown Fort Worth. The location will be part of the bank’s small business finance group, a national Small Business Administration (SBA) lender. The company has named Mike Ramsay as vice president and senior business development officer for the group’s Texas market. Ramsay has more than 20 years of experience in small-business lending. “We have had our eye on Texas for quite some time and are excited to enter the state with Mike on our team,” said George Vredeveld Jr., executive vice president of CertusBank. “We look forward to combining Mike’s experience in the government-guaranteed lending industry with our exceptional product delivery as we partner with small businesses across Texas.” Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., CertusBank has nearly $2 billion in assets with operations in 12 states. With the acquisition of Quadrant Financial Inc. in January, CertusBank became a national leader in SBA 7a lending and the largest SBA lender by volume based in South Carolina. The bank offers government-guaranteed loans nationwide as a direct SBA preferred lender. Visit CertusBank.com for more information.
Redesigned Ben Franklin ready to roll After more than a decade of research and development, the new Series 2009A $100 note will be issued by the Federal Reserve on Oct. 8 for circulation. The new design for the $100 bill was unveiled in 2010, but its introduction was postponed after an unexpected production delay. The new note – Benjamin Franklin remains on the front – is one of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced notes produced to date. It incorporates advanced security features such as a blue, 3-D security ribbon, which is woven into the paper and not printed on it, and the bell in the inkwell. Both images shift and change colors when the note is tilted. On the back, there is a new vignette of Independence Hall featuring the back, rather than the front, of the building. The ovals around the portrait and the vignette have been eliminated and the images have been enlarged. The new $100 note also features phrases from the Declaration of Independence and the quill pen the Founding Fathers used to sign the historic document. The new features, added to the previous security features including the watermark and security thread, make the note easier for the public to authenticate but harder for counterfeiters to replicate. The Federal Reserve asked the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to produce 2.5 billion redesign $100 notes for 2013. The last redesign of the $100 notes began circulating in March 1996. “Considering that there is already close to 9 billion $100 notes in circulation, it is the BEP’s goal to continue to produce U.S. currency notes that are trusted worldwide,” said Carol Riggs, manager of the External Affairs Division at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth. The new notes are printed in two locations: Fort Worth and Washington, D.C. Those printed in Fort Worth will have a small F.W. in the top left corner on the front of the note to the right of the numeral 100.