These are taking part in the Fed's Main Street Lending Program

By Chris Mathews – Reporter, Houston Business Journal Jul 8, 2020, 2:58pm CDT Updated 10 hours ago At least four banks with headquarters in Houston are participating in the Federal Reserve's $600 billion Main Street Lending Program, according to new federal data.

The program offers five-year loans, with floating rates, that range from $250,000 to $300 million to businesses that have been financially impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Federal Reserve on July 8 disclosed a subset of the lenders participating in the program — specifically, lenders registered to the program that are accepting applications from new and existing business customers and that also elected to be listed, according to the Federal Reserve of Boston.

Houston-based Gulf Capital is one of those lenders, according to the Fed. Gulf Capital opened for business in February — the first de novo bank to open in Houston since 2008.

"The program went live this morning at 8 o'clock. In the last three hours, we've had two dozen inquiries," Ed Jones, chairman and CEO of Gulf Capital Bank, told the Houston Business Journal.

After launching with around 16 employees, Gulf Capital has grown to about 30 local employees, Jones said. The bank operates out of a 7,000-square-foot office at One Riverway.

Another local participant is Houston-based Amegy Bank, a subsidiary of Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorporation NA (Nasdaq: ZION). Amegy is the 10th-largest bank in the Houston metro region based on its $10.17 billion in local deposits as of June 30, 2019, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

“Banks have taken unprecedented steps to help their business customers through this pandemic,” a spokesperson for Amegy Bank wrote in a statement to the HBJ. “The Main Street Lending Program is just one more tool available to help businesses survive this crisis, and Amegy Bank stands ready to assist healthy, qualified borrowers that need a loan they can repay later.”

Birmingham, -based BBVA USA — a subsidiary of Houston-based BBVA Bancshares Inc. — is another bank participating in the Main Street Lending Program. Javier Rodríguez Soler, president and CEO of BBVA USA, told the Houston Business Journal in late June that the bank had registered as an eligible lender for the program.

"[We] want to be a pioneer with this program, and we'll see how successful it is," Rodríguez Soler said.

Based on its over $14.2 billion in local deposits as of June 30, 2019, BBVA USA is the fourth-largest bank in the Houston metro region, per the FDIC.

Texas City-based First Bank is another participant in the Main Street Lending Program, according to the Fed. Texas City-based Texas Independent Bancshares, the parent company of Texas First Bank, merged with Houston-based Preferred Bancshares Inc. and its subsidiary, Preferred Bank, in July 2019.

Based on its $908.35 million in local deposits as of June 30, 2019, Texas First Bank is the 21st-largest bank in the Houston market, per the FDIC.

The following lenders are listed as participating in the Main Street Lending Program in Texas, according to the Boston Fed:

 Affiliated Bank

 Bank of America

 BBVA USA

 BOC Bank

 First Financial Bank NA

 First

 Gulf Capital Bank  Security National bank of Omaha

 Texas First Bank

 TransPecos Banks

 Truist

 Vista Bank

 Amegy Bank (Zions Bancorporation)