The 'pride' of Dallas no more: First Texas Bank of Dallas sold to BOK Financial - includes a related article on Carver Federal Savings Bank's purchase of $100 mil mortgage loans from other lenders - Banking News

Black Enterprise, July, 1997 by Lloyd Gite, Glenn Jeffers

Dallas recently lost its only black-owned bank following the sale of First Texas Bank of Dallas to a majority concern, BOK Financial Corp. of Tulsa, Oklahoma. BOK Financial is a multibank holding company with $5 billion in assets.

First Texas Bank of Dallas was founded in 1975 by country singer Charlie Pride, the majority shareholder. Last year, the bank was ranked No. 7 on the BE FINANCIAL 25 list with $135 million in assets and $116 million in deposits. Before the sale this year, the bank's assets had grown to $142 million.

"We decided to buy the bank because it's really a superior performing institution," explains Jim White, BOK's chief financial officer and executive vice president. "Its return on assets--about 2.6%--was extremely high. Among good performing institutions the return might be 1.3%-1.5%, so it was clearly a superior performer," says White, who declined to disclose the price paid for First Texas' two locations. First Texas currently has a CRA rating of "outstanding," according to White.

BOK officials say they will not change the management structure at First Texas Bank because of the bank's past performance. CEO William Stahnke, who is white and has been at First Texas for more than a decade, will remain in that position.

What effect the demise of Dallas' only black-owned bank will have on the local African American community remains to be seen. Several in the community indicated surprise to hear First Texas had been black-owned to begin with.

"I wouldn't have known it was a black-owned bank had it not been for Charlie Pride and the one black loan officer I know there," says Ft. Worth, Texas, business owner Lorenzo Dixon. "I wish they would have been more active in the community. The location was in a predominately white commercial area." But the new owners of First Texas, which will keep its name, say they will have a bona fide commitment to the minority community.

"Look at us a year from now or five years from now and I believe you will find that there will be no decrease in the availability of credit provided to the minority community," says White. "I also believe we'll have a broader range of products and services than the bank has now."

It's still undetermined what role Pride will play with the newly purchased bank. His wife, Rozene Pride, a member of the board of directors at the old First Texas, will remain on the board.