Frost Bank announced that President Pat Frost, whose tenure with the bank began in 1984, will retire at the end of 2023.
Frost serves as group executive vice president of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Frost Bank’s holding company, and president of Frost Insurance.
The bank also announced Tuesday that longtime San Antonio banker Kenny Wilson has joined Frost Bank and will take on the job of group executive vice president as well as chief wealth officer. Wilson will lead “the overall strategy, execution, and growth for the Wealth Management teams,” according to a statement from Frost.
Wilson, who served for several years as Bank of America’s top executive in San Antonio before heading up Haven for Hope, the nonprofit that centralized homeless services on its near-downtown campus, will work with Pat Frost through the end of the year.
Phil Green, Cullen/Frost Chairman and CEO, said Frost’s legacy of philanthropy and community involvement “speaks for itself.”
“On behalf of all of us at the bank, I’d like to congratulate Pat on his upcoming retirement, acknowledge his longtime service to our company, and thank him for everything he’s done,” Green said in a statement. “Over the years he has played crucial roles in our company’s success, and we’re grateful for all of his contributions to that success.”
After his retirement, Frost will continue in a consulting role with the bank. According to the San Antonio Express-News, Frost will remain a director of Cullen/Frost. He is the great-great-grandson of the bank’s founder, T.C. Frost.
“As I look forward to more community and civic involvement in the next chapter of my life, we are fortunate to have Kenny Wilson joining the company,” Pat Frost said. “There has been a mutual respect between us at Frost and him that goes back many years. He brings a lifetime of banking experience and knowledge of the San Antonio community, and he’ll help our company make people’s lives better.”
Last month Frost Bank posted a $1.7 billion decline in deposits and declining asset balances in its second quarter financial statement, marking the third straight drop in quarterly deposits for the bank, according to the San Antonio Business Journal. The bank reported assets of $48.6 billion, down from $51 billion in the first quarter and $53 billion at the end of 2022.
According to a press release on its second quarter results, deposits “continued to be impacted by the higher interest rate environment, as we saw a continuation of the declining trend in non-interest bearing deposit balances that began in the fourth quarter of 2022.”
Net income available to common shareholders for the second quarter of 2023 was $160.4 million compared to $117.4 million in the second quarter of 2022. Cullen/Frost shares closed Tuesday at $107.65.
Green stated that he was “pleased with the earnings growth we experienced during the quarter, and I’m proud of our great staff living our culture of going above and beyond for our customers.”
In June, Frost Bank announced plans to double its presence in the Austin region, which it described as the third largest deposit market in Texas, by 2026.
“This effort aligns with our successful expansions in the dynamic Houston and Dallas markets and complements our organic growth strategy, which has resulted in record levels of customer acquisition,” stated Green.
Frost Bank, Kenny Wilson and Pat Frost are financial supporters of the San Antonio Report. Click here for a full list of business members and here for a list of individual members.
