Carlos Munguia and Brandon Bledsoe have ambitious growth plans for Amegy Bank.
Munguia, the bank’s Dallas market president, told the Dallas Business Journal that he and Fort Worth market president Bledsoe want to double the bank’s deposits in Dallas-Fort Worth within five years.
The Houston-based bank has $1 billion in local deposits and $2 billion in total assets right now, Munguia said.
Since 2018, Amegy’s deposits have grown more than 66% from $664.7 million, he said, by adding bankers, expanding into new locations, and focusing on small and mid-sized family businesses. The bank is a division of Zions Bancorporation.
“We’re considered a growth market for not only Amegy, but for Zions,” Munguia told the DBJ. “Brandon and I feel very blessed that we’re in a $600 billion GDP market, 25th-largest in the world.”
Amegy has one location in Collin County in Plano, and Munguia envisions a bigger presence for the bank in the fast-growing county.
“We’d love to be north of [State Highway] 121,” Munguia told the publication. “Not too far north, but north of 121 and build out an office there. We’ve got the leadership to do it now, so we’re just booking a few more pieces of business and, eventually, we’ll find our way there.”
Munguia, who is a member of the University of North Texas’ board of regents, said he would also like to look to expand east, describing Garland as a “great market.”
Word of mouth has continued to help Amegy to grow, Munguia said.
“I think we’ve flown under the radar for a long time in Dallas and Fort Worth, but we’re trying to get a little more busy,” Munguia told the newspaper. “We’re really in the mindset that our actions speak a lot louder than any word, so we’re trying to add value with our clients one step at a time.”
Munguia and Bledsoe both became Amegy market presidents in 2017.
Under Bledsoe’s leadership, the bank opened its first location in Fort Worth at Sundance Square and a loan office in Arlington.
“Arlington is very strategic because it is the third-largest city in the Metroplex, and it provides a geographical bridge between Dallas and Fort Worth,” Bledsoe told the DBJ. “So that was a logical area for us to expand.”
After Arlington, Bledsoe said he will look to continue expanding throughout Tarrant County. Bledsoe also wants to open locations in Parker County, which he described as an under-the-radar opportunity.
“Parker County doesn’t get the headline news for growth, but it’s up there in terms of population growth,” Bledsoe said. “Long term, we are looking to there and possibly in northern and northeastern Tarrant County. But that growth will be driven around the availability of bankers.”
While Bledsoe is experiencing a bottleneck, Munguia said he has the people he needs to expand around Dallas. He added that Amegy wants to drive growth with small and mid-sized companies and then “opening the spigot” to its specialty lines such as commercial real estate, energy, health care, municipalities, and nonprofits.
“Right now, we’re very well-balanced,” Bledsoe told the publication. “We’re continuing to be active in both the energy and commercial real estate space, but I would say on a very selective basis. We have to very carefully monitor concentrations in those industries … Overall, we have plenty of liquidity. We’re open for business, but I’ll be honest with you, we’re being very selective.”
When the bank installed Munguia and Bledsoe as market presidents, Dallas CEO and President Kirk Wiginton praised their leadership.
Munguia had more than 30 years of banking experience when he joined Amegy, working for Texas American Bank, First City Bank, Bank One, and the F&M Bank & Trust Company.
“It has been the game plan all along for me to have a strong, local partner helping me build Amegy Bank in Dallas,” Wiginton said in a news release. “Carlos is a recognized leader throughout the state, and the vast experience he brings will complement our already strong existing leadership in that market.”
Bledsoe also has more than 30 years of banking experience. He joined Amegy’s commercial real estate team in 2005 after working as an executive with Bank of American in Dallas.
“As we have been looking for opportunities to expand into the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, one critical component has been to identify the right leadership. I believe we have accomplished that with the promotion of Brandon Bledsoe,” Wiginton said in a separate release.
“His diverse banking background and knowledge of the Dallas/Fort Worth market make him a tremendous asset to our team and our clients.”
Amegy has more than $13 billion in assets across Texas. It was founded in 1990 and has 75 full-service locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Central Texas, its website says.
