Foster, SouthStar Bank Director, Elected Chair of Texas Real Estate Research Center Advisory Board

Doug Foster, board director/chairman of the audit committee at Moulton-based SouthStar Bank SSB and director of affairs at Polunsky Beitel Green LLP, was recently elected chairman of the advisory board of the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University (TRERC), effective January 1, 2024. He was originally appointed to the TRERC in 2021 … Read more

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Appoints Searls Vice President of Financial Sector and Policy Analysis

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has appointed Seth Searls vice president of financial sector and policy analysis in the research department. His appointment is effective May 1. He will lead a team providing insights on global financial market developments, specifically relating to monetary policy. Searls joins the bank from the Federal Reserve Bank of New … Read more

A Comment on Implementing Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act

BAILEY ALLEN, PhD Student, Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University MIKE MAULDIN, Director of the Excellence in Banking Program, Texas Tech University DREW WINTERS, Pickering Chair in Finance, Texas Tech University The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (hereafter, Dodd-Frank Act) was created—according to the first paragraph of the act itself: “To … Read more

Understanding the Reach of the SBA and Community Banks in Texas

MARK GRIFFITHS, Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California MIKE MAULDIN, Director of the Excellence In Banking Program, Texas Tech University DREW WINTERS, Pickering Chair in Finance, Texas Tech University EDITOR’S NOTE: This research paper—part three of a comprehensive look at the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)—was provided by the Excellence in Banking Program at Texas Tech … Read more

A Review of the 2021 Paycheck Protection Program

The 2021 release of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), which was signed into law on December 27, 2020. The new release of the program arrived at the right time, as the health of small businesses had deteriorated toward the end of 2020. In this report, we first … Read more

Let Me Tell You a Story

Let me tell you a story. It’s not my story, but it is one I seem to be hearing a lot these days: The world of financial services is changing. It is changing fast. Everything is shifting overnight. Even while you sleep, someone is getting a leg up on you. As a banker, you are … Read more

FDIC Releases 2020 Community Banking Study

In mid-December, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) released the 2020 Community Banking Study, a new large-scale study on the state of the nation’s community banks. The study finds community banks played a critical role in providing access to credit in several key areas of the U.S. economy, particularly through lending to support commercial real … Read more

Pandemic Prescience: A New Look at a 2007 Report that Pondered the Economic Impact of Another Event Like the 1918 Influenza

EDITOR’S NOTE: In 2007, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a paper by economist Thomas A. Garrett, then an assistant vice president at the St. Louis Fed (now an associate professor in economics at the University of Mississippi), entitled Economic Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Implications for a Modern-Day Pandemic. Have those implications … Read more

Latest Beige Book Reveals ‘Generally Positive, but Uncertain’ Outlook in the 11th District

The economy expanded at a modest pace in the Federal Reserve System’s 11th District in recent months, but activity in most industries remained below normal levels. That’s one of the key findings reported in the Fed’s latest edition of the Beige Book, published eight times per year. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic … Read more

What was Different in the Second Round of PPP in Texas? Part Two of a Study of the Role of Community Banks in Texas

MARK GRIFFITHS, Principal, MG2 Investments LLCMIKE MAULDIN, Director of the Excellence In Banking Program, Texas Tech UniversityDREW WINTERS, Pickering Chair in Finance, Texas Tech University EDITOR’S NOTE: This research paper—part two of a comprehensive look at the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)—was provided by the Excellence in Banking Program at Texas Tech University and offers documentation … Read more