Guided by Faith... Grounded by Family... Committed to You!
Helping people is at the heart of everything we do. From small towns to big cities, we enhance our customers' lives by offering competitive financial solutions, providing top-notch service, and staying ahead of technological demands. We are guided by faith, lead with integrity, and treat every customer like Family.
Falcon International Bank is proud to have over 380 dedicated team members, in addition to assets over $1.9 Billion and 18 branches located in Laredo, Zapata, San Antonio, McAllen, Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and Buda, as well as a loan production office in Austin, and representative offices in Monterrey and Guadalajara, Mexico. Falcon is ranked the 73rd largest bank among the top 100 banks in Texas in 2022 by the Texas Department of Banking. Falcon operates in a traditional and relationship - based business model, with its top priority of remaining safe and focusing on core banking fundamentals. It maintains a robust liquidity foundation, a strong capital base, and outstanding and consistent financial performance, which is a testament of the existing assessments from the various bank rating companies like Bauer Financial Rating, which currently grades Falcon with the highest "Five (5) star Superior rating", and DepositAccounts.com which scores Falcon with a "health rating" of "A".
But this is not where we started.
In the 1950s, Hugo A. Gutierrez Sr. lived in a modest owner-financed home in Laredo, Texas. He was an independent electrician, and after being awarded what was, for him, a significant job, he needed to borrow $5,000 for materials. He approached a local bank for a loan, handing over all the titles to his work trucks.
What came next was a shock: The bank officer told him that his bank was not a pawnshop. It was ridiculous, the officer said, to expect to be loaned money based on car titles. He would need tax statements, profit and loss statements, tax returns, business plan, pro-formas, cash flow statements, letters of recommendation from his most loyal customers, and more.
Mr. Gutierrez, Sr. walked out feeling like a failure. It wasn’t that the bank required more documentation than he possessed—it was the disdain he was shown. The dismissal of him as ignorant and unworthy. He pledged never to put himself in a situation like that again.
In 1986, Mr. Gutierrez, Sr., now a trusted, longtime Laredo businessman, was invited to join the board of directors of a new bank, then called Falcon National Bank. He had never forgotten the way the bank officer had made him feel, and his earlier pledge changed: Falcon would be the bank he wished had been there in his youth. It would treat every customer with respect. No—it would treat every customer like family.
In 1995, Mr. Gutierrez, Sr. and his own family purchased a majority interest in the bank, and he contributed his invaluable business experience to his new role as chairman of the board. His sons, Hugo Jr. and Adolfo, joined him on the board, and Adolfo also became the bank’s president and CEO, a position he held for nearly a dozen years. In that time, Mr. Gutierrez Sr.’s business savvy and devotion to family created a business model that still guides Falcon throughout its growth.
Today, after decades of treasured business advice from his father, Adolfo serves as Falcon’s Chairman of the Board, and Gilbert Narvaez, Jr., an integral part of Falcon since 1992, serves as President and CEO. Narvaez, John J. Hill, Hugo A. Gutierrez, Jr., Ray A. Gonzales, Eduardo Garza-Robles, Pablo Villanueva and AJ Gutierrez also add their banking and business expertise to Falcon’s Board of Directors. Carlo Gutierrez also serves in capacity of Advisory Board Member.
Mr. Gutierrez Sr. always said, “Family is everything. La familia es todo.” From this credo came Falcon’s unique approach to banking, guided by three principles: faith, family, and Falcon. At Falcon, family extends to our communities. We are proud to serve as volunteers, contributors, and board members of the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, March of Dimes, Junior Achievement, S.T.A.R.S., Rotary Clubs, Habitat for Humanity, United Way, Goodwill, Women's City Club, South Texas Food Bank, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Laredo WBCA and more.
Almost 70 years after Mr. Gutierrez, Sr. walked back to his truck, titles in hand, we promise never to forget that serving you is a privilege—and our mission. We look forward to continuing to grow together . . . as a family.
