Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 129
source and as a recipient of cash and credit, but also to provide the growing area of the
BCMUD1 with needed banking services.
I queried the main owners of Citizens about their interest in expanding to the area of my
developments but did not find a positive response. Frank, on the other hand, agreed to
go along with me. Both of us terminated our association with Citizens Bank on June
1981. On April 16, 1986, former state senator Bill Moore, the original founder and
present chairman of the board, bought my stock in that bank at double the price I had
paid. The FDIC closed Citizens Bank nine months later. The suddenness of the decline
and fall of this financial institution exemplifies the brutality of the economic crisis that
gripped Texas in the late 1980s.
During the next several months of 1981, Frank and I brought three other community
leaders as major partners of our new bank and constituted the organizing board. Each
of the five organizers subscribed 13 % of the stock. We sold the remaining 35 % of the
stock to other investors, including my friends Scott Potter and Kay Dobelman. Our
charter as a national bank was received February 5, 1982. On November 15 of the
same year we dedicated our new building and opened for business. Western National
Bank N. A. of Bryan, Texas (Western) was now another dream turned reality. I was very
happy that both my parents were with me for the occasion and were able to attend the
inauguration ceremony.
The senior member and chairman of our board was W. W. Callan, a very well known
businessman in central Texas. He brought to our bank not only respectable deposits
and industry connections but also invaluable experience and banking savvy. Starting
with our own capital of $ 2,000,000, which included our brand new building in late 1982,
we grew the deposit base to about $ 40,000,000 by the fall of 1987, when the bank
failed. In the build-up years it was exhilarating to see how we were helping other
individuals make their dreams come true. We helped set-up practices for dentists,
lawyers and other professionals. Businesses ran the spectrum from food catering to oil
well services. We had merchants, traders, wholesalers, house builders, contractors,
retailers and every kind of tradesmen. Most of our depositors lived in the new areas I
was developing. Our loan portfolio was well diversified and, when needed, properly
shared with upstream banks. Mr. Callan was a significant stockholder in other banks in
the central Texas area that worked with us quite well. Our success at obtaining deposits
provided the funds needed to make the loans. Very importantly to me, the area formerly
known as BCMUD1 finally had a financial entity fueling its growth and, with its presence,
made it more convenient for people to live in the neighborhood.
Way before my banking forays in Texas, I had some exposure to international financial
transactions. While representing the Kingdom of Denmark in Bolivia, I learned in 1967
about a market existing in the royal domain for first and second lien mortgages
(pantebreve) on private homes. Specialized banks would actually sell the collateral of
their home loans to private investors and then administer the paperwork. Although this
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