Why Your Money Might Be Leaving Texas (And Where It Goes)

Big bank deposits leave Texas for New York. In Fredericksburg, community banks put that capital back into the Hill Country. John Wells, Market President of Texas Regional Bank, on local banking, brain drain, and the high school incubator keeping talent in Fredericksburg Texas.

John Wells runs Texas Regional Bank’s Fredericksburg market. He walked the path from frontline banker to market president, and he draws a hard line between national banks and community banks: deposits that leave town fund giant loans in New York, Chicago, and LA. Community banks reinvest where the money was earned.

We cover how Fredericksburg grew from peaches, antiques, and German culture into a real destination that still keeps its Texas identity. Why relationship banking still beats a pure rate shop. Why the best owners keep an attorney, a CPA, and a banker on speed dial. How brain drain pulls kids out of the Hill Country, and how Fredericksburg ISD’s incubator and CTE work, with the Chamber and local banks, give them a reason to build here instead of only in Austin or Houston.

John’s line on Austin: Never Neverland, where people go and never grow up. In Fredericksburg, people are excited to grow up, and excited to see the town grow up. Credit along the way to Jim McCullough and the Fredericksburg Chamber, Dan Kemp and David Pedregon at Security State Bank, and the teachers and sponsors behind the incubator. Next stop for those students: Texas Venture Fest in Mason.

If you care about Texas economic development, community banking, living in the Texas Hill Country, or how small cities keep capital and talent local, this one is for you.

John Wells
Market President, Texas Regional Bank
Fredericksburg, Texas

Chapters:
0:00 Big Bank Deposits Go to New York
0:15 Welcome to Fredericksburg with John Wells
1:04 Peaches, Antiques, and a Grown-Up Hill Country City
1:51 Why They Moved When Options Were Thin
2:46 Ground-Up Banking to Texas Regional Bank
4:13 Community Bank DNA After 15 Years
6:00 Relationship Banking Beats Transactional Banking
7:44 Attorney, CPA, Banker: The Holy Trinity
9:13 Where Your Deposits Actually Go
10:01 Little League Uniforms and Local Reinvestment
10:33 Brain Drain in Fredericksburg Texas
12:00 Incubator, CTE, and the Chamber’s Bet on Youth
13:07 Austin Never Neverland vs Fredericksburg Growing Up
14:05 Community Lift, Not One Person’s Crusade
14:49 Dan Kemp, David Pedregon, and Servant Leaders
15:20 Venture Fest Mason and Go Billies

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