Why you should be banking with Cattleman’s Bank

A hometown bank from Southwestern Oklahoma serving Dallas with incredibly effective lending

When looking for Better Banking Options in Dallas, there was one that immediately stood out to us. You wouldn’t expect to find a bank or credit union in an urban area like Dallas that devotes about a quarter of their assets to small farm loans. However, for Cattleman’s Bank, this makes more sense considering the bank was originally located in rural Oklahoma and is still headquartered there. However, even if a large part of their assets is being used outside of the city, they’re a highly effective lender, and this is the number one thing we look for when looking for banks that impact communities.

Cattleman’s Bank was originally formed in 1910 as the First State Bank of Gould, in Gould, OK, by a local man who sold his only assets, a pack of mules, to gather the capital needed to start the bank. As the population of Gould grew smaller during the last decades of the century, the bank branched out and moved their headquarters from Gould to Altus in 1998. However, they do still maintain a branch in their hometown. They continued to grow in membership and opened four additional branches in southwest Oklahoma and eventually, Dallas. Their office in Dallas started as a loan production office, but they now are a full-fledged branch.

Not only does this bank do an enormous amount of small farm lending, making up 22% of their total assets, they also do an enormous amount of small business lending. Thirty-seven percent of their assets go to small business loans, and this kind of lending is a fantastic way to bring capital and jobs into neighborhoods that need both. While only two of their six branches are located in qualified census tracts (QCTs), and we would encourage them to open a branch on Dallas’s south side, they still do 50% of their housing lending in low- and moderate-income census tracts. This may not be much considering that only 11% of their lending is done in housing, because their assets are being used for other areas of lending, but it does show that they prioritize lending to their low- and moderate-income customers.

While Cattleman’s Bank may not be the best Better Banking Option for someone looking to specifically support their neighborhood in Dallas, it’s still a great choice for anyone in the area who wants to make sure their assets are being used for quality lending. Small business and farming lending, even if it’s not done directly within the metropolitan area, will only bring more jobs, capital, and quality food into the region. They offer both online and mobile banking, so we’d recommend them to anyone who wants their deposits to be effectively loaned throughout Southwestern Oklahoma and the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Check out their website to get started today!

This article was re-published in March of 2024 after the institution reached out to inform us of a name change. The lending data referenced in this article was from 2019.