Would Texas banks need new charters?

Most Texas banks already hold a Texas charter, so for them the answer is largely no. The state's bank-charter system is mature, attractive, and already regulating more than half the banks in Texas. Independence finishes a structure that is mostly already standing, it does not start one from scratch.

Most Texas banks are already state-chartered

This is the foundation, and it surprises people. More banks in Texas are chartered and regulated by the State of Texas than by Washington. Texas has more than 200 state-chartered banks, overseen by the Texas Department of Banking, which supervises more than half the banks operating in the state. For all of those institutions, the charter they operate under is already a Texas charter, issued and examined by a Texas regulator. Independence does not require them to get a new one. They already have the one that matters.

Texas built its charter to be one of the best in the country

Texas did not back into this position. It built it on purpose. State law gives Texas-chartered banks the same rights and privileges available to nationally chartered banks operating in Texas, and a "super parity" provision lets a Texas-chartered bank conduct any activity allowed to any other insured bank anywhere in the country. That deliberately makes the Texas charter one of the most powerful and attractive in the United States. A bank operating under it is not operating under a weaker instrument. In many respects it is operating under a stronger one.

Federally chartered banks would convert, and that path already exists

The banks that currently hold a federal charter would move to a Texas charter, and that is a well-worn road, not a leap into the unknown. Banks convert between state and federal charters under the current system regularly. The Texas Department of Banking already has the framework, the staff, and the experience to charter and supervise these institutions. A federally chartered bank in an independent Texas simply re-charters under the Texas regulator that already oversees most of its peers. The customer notices nothing.

The regulator is already in place and proven

A country needs a competent bank regulator, and Texas already has one with a long track record. The Texas Department of Banking has chartered, examined, and supervised banks for generations. Independence does not require building a banking authority from nothing and hoping it works. It elevates an established, experienced state regulator to handle the slice of banks that used to answer to Washington, alongside the majority it already oversees.

The bottom line

Most Texas banks already hold the charter they need, issued by a Texas regulator that already supervises the majority of the state's banks. The federally chartered minority convert through a process that already exists, to a charter Texas deliberately made one of the strongest in the country. New charters are a routine administrative step, not an obstacle.