State banking sector steady through slow economic recovery

Oklahoma's publicly traded banking firms bank of stability during troubled economic times.

BY DON MECOY | Published: November 14, 2010 Comment on this article

Oklahoma's three publicly traded banking companies typically don't rank near the top or the bottom in the annual Oklahoma Inc. evaluations.

This year is no different. All three publicly traded banking companies produced middling rankings in Oklahoma Inc., as they have tended to do historically.

Banks tend to avoid volatility.

"The banking environment in Oklahoma is best described by word stable,” said BancFirst Corp. CEO David Rainbolt.

Southwest Bancorp, parent of Stillwater National Bank, posted the highest ranking among the state-based banking companies at No. 17. Its strongest showing was in one-year total return, where it ranked 14th with a 36.9 percent total return.

BOK Financial Corp., parent of Bank of Oklahoma, finished just behind Southwest Bancorp at No 18, with none of its three rankings higher than No. 18 nor lower than No. 20. BOK Financial was the largest commercial bank in the country that didn't take money through the federal Trouble Asset Relief Program.

BancFirst landed at No. 22, with no ranking higher than No. 16 nor lower than No. 24. BancFirst is Oklahoma's largest state-chartered bank.

The onset of the Great Recession came late to Oklahoma and has been less severe, in part because housing values were relatively stable and lending practices were generally conservative.

While local banks have been forced to deal with problem credits, the damage has been limited by lending practices learned a generation ago in the wake of the Penn Square Bank debacle.

"We continue to manage our loan portfolio through this difficult credit climate with our ongoing, disciplined workout process focused on addressing the challenges of the commercial real estate construction and commercial mortgage sectors,” said Southwest Bancorp CEO Rick Green.

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