Some well-known Texas bankers say that they plan to start bidding on failed institutions now that they have a shelf charter from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency.
Tom C. Nichols and Don E. Cosby organized Carlile Bancshares Inc. in Fort Worth, which announced Monday that it had received the shelf charter.
The two men had formed State National Bank in Fort Worth in 1996, built it to $1.7 billion of assets and then sold it in 2007 to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA for $470 million.
Another State National veteran, Mindy Hegi, is joining Nichols and Cosby in the new venture.
Carlile, which has commitments for $50 million of capital, received only the second shelf charter to be issued so far.
The OCC introduced the new charter approval process in the fall to enable those that did not already own a bank to participate in the bidding process for failures.
The first shelf charter went to the Dallas billionaire Gerald J. Ford, who has yet to use the charter to make an acquisition.
Ford bought up failed thrifts two decades ago and later sold them for top dollar.
In October he created two private-equity funds that stockpiled $1.38 billion specifically for the purpose of investing in troubled banks.
