Creating a banking pipeline to the future

Support these programs with your money and your time — it will be an excellent investment for your bank.”

Serving as the 2022-2023 Chairman of the Texas Bankers Association has been very educational and informative for me. I have gotten to know bankers across the state of Texas, some for the first time, while others I have gotten to know better. The banking network is a close one. Bankers like bankers, and it is because we share a love for the same thing — helping people. What we all have in common is that we all have a servant’s heart. As this year’s Chairman, I have also gotten to know bankers across the United States. 

As I get to know bankers, we find that quality staffing is one similarity when discussing our challenges. I was a banker in the economic meltdown in the 1980s. We not only lost many banks in Texas through failures, but we also lost many bankers. Today, we see mergers and consolidations as opposed to bank failures — but we still see the loss of knowledgeable bankers. For our industry to continue service to our customers, we must maintain that pipeline of new talent. That human capital allows us to complete our mission of servitude toward the bank customers who depend on us. 

As I traveled during the Texas Tour, I continuously spoke of the good job that the Texas Bankers Association has done — and is doing — through Brent Cox and the banking schools at many of our state’s universities. I serve on the Commercial Banking Program Advisory Board at Texas A&M. I have met with these young students and hired them in the summer as interns. I am encouraged by the intellect and commitment gained from these programs. 

The Texas Bankers Association is creating the pipeline of bankers our industry needs. Other states are seeing what we have done in Texas and are reaching out to us for help to replicate in their state what the Texas Bankers Association has done in Texas. 

On the Texas Tour, I talked about Brent’s work and stated, “It is not good for bankers to take bankers from other banks — we need more bankers.” That is what these banking programs are doing — they are educating young people to be the next generation of bankers for Texas. These students see banking as the honorable profession it is. They are coming out of these schools well equipped for the needs of others, our industry, and, more importantly, our customers’ service. 

If you are not involved with these banking programs at one of our state’s universities, I encourage you to do so. Support these programs with your money and your time — it will be an excellent investment for your bank. Join the advisory boards, hire their students in the summer and help create that pipeline of innovative bankers our industry needs. 

The Texas Bankers Association and/or the Texas Bankers Foundation have donated to the following university banking programs:

• Sam Houston State University
• Schreiner University
• Stephen F. Austin State University
• Texas A&M University
• Texas A&M Kingsville
• Texas Southern University
• Texas Tech University
• University of Houston
• University of Texas at El Paso