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A McAllen family that last week acquired Inter National Bank in the Rio Grande Valley eventually plans to merge the $1.6 billion institution with San Antonio’s Vantage Bank Texas.

The family of James W. Collins purchased a 100 percent interest in Inter National Bank of McAllen from Grupo Financiero Banorte of Mexico for an undisclosed price. The family already has a controlling interest in Vantage Bancorp Inc., the parent of Vantage Bank, which had almost $500 million in assets at the end of last year.

“Our intention now is to really combine, long-term, Vantage with INB at the appropriate time period,” Collins said in an interview Thursday.

Asked when that might happen, Collins said, “We’re hoping sooner rather than later.” No paperwork has been filed with bank regulators, he said.

Collins said it’s advantageous for the banks to combine because of synergies and cost savings.

The combined banks would have about $2.1 billion in assets based on year-end reports. That would rank it as about the 42nd-largest bank in the state. INB currently ranks 47th, according to the Texas Department of Banking.

“Eventually (the plan is) to merge the two, I’m sure; if Jim says it, it’s true,” Vantage Bank CEO Guy Bodine said. “But what we’re doing today is operating two separate banks. There have been no definitive conversations around anything about the merger.”

Bodine noted, however, that the two banks have become affiliates of each other because of the Collins family’s controlling interest in both.

The Collins family also owns minority interests in Southwest Bancshares Inc., the parent company of The Bank of San Antonio; Texas Hill Country Bancshares Inc, the parent of Texas Hill Country Bank in Bandera; and Commerce Bank Texas in Stockdale. Collins serves on the boards of the holding companies.

INB was formed in 1985 by a group of six organizers that included Collins. The investor group sold a large stake in the bank to Banorte, one of Mexico’s largest financial institutions, in 2006. Banorte purchased the interest as way to expand in the U.S., the McAllen Monitor reported in November. In 2009, Banorte acquired the remaining interest it did not already own in INB.

INB CEO and President Samuel Munafo was out of the office and unavailable for comment Thursday.

INB has been named as the victim in a number of federal court cases alleging that corrupt government officials from Mexico lied to bank officers in order to deposit bribes into their accounts.

Luis Carlos Castillo Cervantes, a U.S. citizen living in Mission who owns a paving company in Mexico, used his position as a 7 percent shareholder in INB to help corrupt politicians and businessmen launder money in the U.S., federal prosecutors have alleged. During Castillo’s January plea hearing in Corpus Christi, an assistant U.S. attorney said the businessman had an office at INB in McAllen.

Castillo was accused of helping former governors and other officials from three Mexican states, as well as a businessman with property in San Antonio, to open accounts at INB that were used to funnel tens of millions of dollars in bribe money from Mexico into U.S. banks. Castillo has not yet been sentenced.

“I would say Inter National tries to do an excellent job of being in compliance and checking for money laundering,” Collins said. He said the bank now employs more than 30 people in compliance.

“I think Grupo Banorte exited because of the increased U.S. regulation,” Collins added.

The bank will continue to do business with customers on both sides of the border, he said.

Collins, who took over as INB’s chairman when the transaction closed, said his family believes it can expand the bank throughout South Texas, and possibly beyond.

INB lost $185 million last year, but that was due to $203 million in goodwill impairment losses in connection with Banorte’s planned divestiture of INB.

INB has about 400 employees, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s website. The bank had about $1.3 billion in deposits and more than $1 billion in loans at the end of last year.

pdanner@express-news.net

Twitter: @AlamoPD

Staff Writer Jason Buch contributed to this report.

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