AMERICAN BANCORP OF OKLAHOMA history

Within a few days of the land run on April 22, 1889, at least nine were opened.

Renamed First National Bank of Oklahoma City in 1890, the bank moved into a wooden building at the corner of Main and Broadway streets, establishing what remains the banking center of Oklahoma City.

In 1893 the Oklahoma territorial legislature required that banks provide names of officers and list bank activities but did not require a minimum deposit requirement for operating.

However, the state's oldest continuously operated banking institution is Stillwater National Bank and Trust Company, established in 1894.

However, the two failed banks eventually paid out all deposits and merged in 1897.

After another nationwide bank run in 1907, the new state of Oklahoma became the first state in the nation to have compulsory deposit insurance.

The first failure came in 1908, and with it came the charge that the system was an excuse to close fundamentally sound banks for political reasons.

Another problem with compulsory insurance surfaced with the 1909 failure of Oklahoma City's Columbia Bank and Trust Company, with $2.8 million in deposits.

He was a founding investor in Liberty National Bank formed in 1918 with offices near his Oklahoma City storefront.

Faced with staggering claims, the state legislature abolished the bankrupt Bank Guarantee System in 1923.

In 1933, an estimated 4,000 banks failed with a loss of $140 billion in deposits.

By 1960 National Bank of Tulsa was known as the "oil bank of America," and oil loans were instrumental in the rise of the First National Bank of Oklahoma as the largest bank in the state.

Liberty Bank started the trend in 1968, erecting the tallest structure in Oklahoma City.

The bank will change its name twice by 1973, first to American Bank of Edmond, and then to American Bank & Trust.

James Smallwood, An Oklahoma Adventure: Of Banks and Bankers (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979).

July 5, 1982: Penn Square Bank fails, signaling the beginning of troubled times for banks dependent on oil, gas and real estate lending.

In 1985 Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska each had thirteen bank closings and ranked the highest in the nation for number of bank failures.

July 14, 1986: Federal regulators declare First National Bank insolvent after bad oil, agricultural and real estate loans consume its net worth.

By 1988 only two of Oklahoma’s ten largest banks remained, including Liberty.

May 18, 1989: First Interstate acquires insolvent Bank of Edmond.

March 1, 1991: St Louis-based Boatmen's Bancshares announces a plan to acquire First Interstate.

June, 25, 1992: Boatmen's acquires Security Bank of Tulsa and First Bank of Catoosa.

23, 1993: Boatmen's announces the purchase of Woodland Bank in Tulsa.

25, 1995: Boatmen's buys Wichita, Kan.-based Fourth Financial Corp., owner of Bank IV in Oklahoma, which had acquired a succession of thrifts.

30, 1996: NationsBank announces a deal to acquire Boatmen's, creating the fourth-largest United States bank at the time.

July 14, 1997: Boatmen's is renamed NationsBank in Oklahoma.

April 13, 1998: NationsBank and San Francisco-based BankAmerica Corp., parent of Bank of America, announce a merger plan to form the country's first coast-to-coast bank.

2, 1999: NationsBank is renamed Bank of America in Oklahoma.

In 2003 there were 273 banks and five savings banks in the state of Oklahoma.

The bank has grown steadily and profitably even through the dark days of 2009, when the country again saw record numbers of bank failures.