McALLEN — The Collins family completed its purchase of Inter National Bank from Banorte on Friday, the family told The Monitor, putting the bank back in the hands of the family that helped establish it 30 years ago.
The cost of the agreement was not disclosed.
Banorte, one of Mexico’s largest and oldest financial institutions, is a commercial bank with more than 1,200 branches and 2,700 employees.
INB has approximately $1.7 billion in assets with 19 branches in Texas, mostly in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as Laredo and El Paso.
INB was formed in 1985 by a group of local businessmen that included Jim Collins. He eventually became majority owner. In 2006, Jim Collins sold a majority of his investment, as did the investor group (70 percent), to Banorte, due to its offer and desire to expand into the United States. The rest was sold to Banorte in 2009.
The Collins family’s plan for INB is to grow it into a statewide banking franchise. The family is also heavily invested in Vantage Bank, a San Antonio-based institution that has branches in McAllen and across South Texas.
The recent trend in bank purchases is for a large group to acquire a smaller one. For example, Texas State Bank was acquired by Spanish-based BBVA Compass in 2008. Texas State Bank was the largest in South Texas at the time.
“While many community banks are going away due to consolidation, we’re going to grow,” said Jim Collins, INB board chairman. “Every decision that affects INB and its customers will be made on a local level. This should allow INB to better serve our communities because we live here. We’ve grown up here. We know the people and the issues and we can be a partner in helping our customers succeed.”
Paul Moxley, who was with Texas State Bank and is now CEO of Texas Regional Bank, said this acquisition is a positive for the area, especially if Vantage and INB merge.
“The Rio Grande Valley will always be built on the smaller community banks,” Moxley said. “Without knowing the Collins’ plan as to what will happen, if we were to have a merger of two larger banks in the Valley, I think it’d be a good thing for the region.”
